Children of the First: Hidden Truths
by Beguile
Summary: **COMPLETE!!** 17 years post finale. Two teenagers linked to the end of the world and may be the only people who can stop the invasion from happening again. It's good and I got some really good reviews on it! Please read!
1. Arrival at the Lake

Disclaimer: The characters Dana Scully, Fox Mulder, William Scully, John Doggett, Monica Reyes and the other characters that I didn't make up belong to Chris Carter. Plus the story of Hamlet and other characters belong to everyone who made them up. Don't sue me please!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Hidden Truths  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 1 - Arrival at the Lake House  
  
  
  
"You're going to die William Scully starting with that red hair of yours!" Meredith Doggett ran up the stairs of her godmother's house. She didn't care about taking her coat or shoes off, or even dropping her duffle bag off. She was angry and it was thattime of the month, and it didn't help that her godmother's son was calling her "Blondie."  
  
"Oh yeah Blondie?" She ran down the long hallway of the lake house. She turned into William's room. The lights were off, but when they suddenly flashed on, she was ready. She whipped around and grabbed William's outstretched hand ready to pull her half pony tail. She laughed a little. She dropped her bag on the ground and hugged her friend.  
  
"Hey redhead." She joked, running her fingers through his moppy red hair, much like his mother's. He felt her smooth blond locks running down her back, curly and poofy. She hated her curly thick hair. He loved it, of course, he would never admit this to Meredith, or Mary as he called her when he wasn't insulting her thick, curly blond hair.  
  
"So how have you been?" She asked him when they let go of one another. He shrugged. His bedroom hadn't changed on bit, the posters of rock bands on the walls, the bed unmade, the clothes lying all over the laundry hamper and had he been un prepared all over the room. She smiled her sweet, cute smile and tossed her hair onto her back. He smiled back at her.  
  
"I still have the same room right?" He nodded. He was awegully silent. Meredith picked up her back off the hardwood floor and walked through his bathroom. She had missed William. With her last year of highschool coming up and him going to college, the two only got to see eachother when their parents decided to come to the lake house or rather a small cottage renteds by the two parents. She tossed her bag onto the bed. Her room was the same. Her bureau, her closet, her bed, and her bathroom unfortunetly shared with William.  
  
William walked through the bathroom, as if stalking 16 year old Meredith. He didn't like her in the sense thatthey had a girlfriend and boyfriend thing, but they were definitely good friends. He had grown up with his blondie, and he wasn't about to let that change.  
  
"So what have you been doing?" He asked her. For some reason they saw that she was distant. She tossed a newspaper onto the bed.  
  
"Acting, school mainly. But acting a dn some singing." She looked at him. "And you?"  
  
"School." He said. "Sorry I haven't called you in a while. Been busy."  
  
"That makes two of us." She showed him the paper. Her picture was on the front page, donned in make-up and a long gown, her hand pointed out at another actor.  
  
"Cool." He said and read through the article. "The stunning and prodominant actress Meredith Doggett as the amazing and beautiful Ophelia. Hamlet huh?" Meredith nodded. She looked down cast.  
  
"What's wrong it looks great."  
  
"I didn't want it to be this big." She said. He set the paper on the bed. "Is this all you've been doing?"  
  
"Nope, I did some work on the Labyrinthe but I was the understudy. Ophelia was the biggest role I've gotten so far." He looked proud.  
  
"I think you're great." She smiled.  
  
"What about you?" She asked him. "What have you been doing?"  
  
"School. I'm going off to Med school you know Blondie, but its either that or Law."  
  
Meredith nodded. She took off her coat and tossed it onto the bed. She straightened her turtleneck. William came to the paper again. Meredith as Ophelia was unbelievable. For her whole life she had been an actress, always pulling gags and often getting away with them. He loved Meredith for that.  
  
"Dinner's ready!" William heard his mother call upstairs. Besides, Meredith had basically started her visit with a chase up the stairs after William. She unzipped her knee high boots and slipped on her classy dress shoes to go with her lengthly black pants and red turtle neck. She was very pretty, her cat like blue eyes and long, curly blond hair bloth traights of her father and then her strong personality and perfect mouth like her mother. He held out his arm. Meredith looked up into his green eyes and moppy red hair from his mother and his strong chin and estranged mind from his father. She took it.  
  
"Let's go reap the whirwind." He said sadly. Meredith laughed her pretty laugh, and the two friends walked down the stairs. 


	2. Dinner

Chapter 2 - Dinner  
  
  
  
"Aunt Dana." Meredith hugged her godmother. The red haired Dana Scully released her god daughter. She then was met by her god father, Fox Mulder who had seemingly come back from the dead according to Dana. Even though Dana and Fox were in no way related to her, she always looked apon them as her second parents. That was why her parents had chosen them as her god parents. She and William took their seats out on the porch. She looked over at her parents, her father looking older then he had the day before and her mother, perfect in her grace and elegance as she always had been. They always looked forward to summer, when the two agents (not yet retired, still fairly young), a professor and a retired FBI agent now turned psychiatrist. She smiled and looked back over at William. Her parents had some wine and despite her constant yearnings, she received only a bit. She was never really big on the taste but that was alright.  
  
"So where is Meredith going after highschool?" Mulder asked her parents, not Meredith. Maybe tha major factor was thatMeredith was related to Monica Reyes and John Doggett, she didn't know.  
  
"I' m really not sure what's going on with Meredith these days." Monica replied.  
  
"I'm actually applying to a New York University of the arts and possibly somewhere closer." Meredith said, and was aware people were listening to her. William looked over at her.  
  
"I didn't know you wanted to apply to New York?" John looked at his daughter.  
  
"I brought it up on the drive over here dad, you heard me right?" John shrugged. Monica didn't seem to care. Meredith took another bite of salad.  
  
"I heard William was going to Med School." Meredith said, trying in a very bad way to change the subject.  
  
"Yes, right here in Washington in fact." Fox said.  
  
"Have you ever seen his drawings? They're amazing." Meredith ate some more salads. The truth was she hadn't seen a drawing from William in a long time.  
  
"Actually, no we haven't are you still drawing Will?"  
  
"Here and there." He said with his deepening voice. Meredith looked at him.  
  
"And with those skills he could work in a tattoo parlour."  
  
"I didn't spend 4 years of my life in hell with flourescent lighting to go to a tattoo parlour Blondie." William said. "I want to go to Med school. Or law, or music or even art. But not tattooing." Meredith flicked his moppy hair and stuck her tongue out at him.  
  
"You work too hard redhead, no offense Dana." Scully shook her hand as if to say, "None taken."  
  
"And in your life Monica?"  
  
Her mother still looked fairly young and her voice had failed to crack with the sixteen years of age she had gained when she had given birth to Meredith. She was roughly 40 - 50 now, but still quite pretty with her undying deep brown hair and lovely eyes.  
  
"Well, I'm still keeping my job. John isn't retiring any time soon. He was actually considering to apply at the Academy."  
  
"Well, I needed something new." He said, wiping his mouth. "I just wanted a new experience. You know, the x-files is fun," the whole table could note his sarcasm, "But I think I'm either staying or going."  
  
"I don't think you should leave dad, the X-files is your life." She hadn't meant to be funny, but her statement had arroused the table. A silent yet conspicuous laughter had started.  
  
"Not my life, Merry, just my job. A job shouldn't be your life, never." He said.  
  
"I disagree." She said. "I think if you like you job, it could become your life." Once again, more laughter.  
  
"A job you like?" Monica looked at her daughter.  
  
"Well, you have to like what your doing to be good at it. And when your good at it you like it and you want to spend you life doing it." Mulder coughed slightly. She looked over and laughed a little.  
  
"Not naming any names or pointing any fingers." The whole table looked down at Mulder. They had all heard the story.  
  
"I guess the X-Files could have become his life." William said. "If the FBI hadn't kicked him out." He took another sip of his tiny glass of wine.  
  
"Yes, well I would love to join in this Mulder bashing but I think its time to get ready for bed." Dana added. The sun was sinking low in the sky. Mulder lit the torches around the deck. Dana went inside with Monica and they did the dishes. Although Meredith would have loved to go in there and started bashing males and get into a girl talk with her two favourite girls in the world, she remained outside in the misty night.  
  
Meredith looked down at her watch. It beeped 11:00 and she realized how tired she was.  
  
"I'm off." She said. She was about to go inside when William followed her.  
  
"I'm coming too Merry." He said and opened the door for her. She nodded as if to say thank you. He and she walked upstairs, looking out the windows. The mist rolled off the lake.  
  
"Good night William." She said.  
  
"Good night Meredith." He replied. 


	3. Arguement

Chapter 3 - Arguement  
  
  
  
Meredith turned over once more. She couldn't seem to get comfortable. She could hear the crickets outside. Maybe some water would help, she thought and got out of bed. Her bare feet were cold on the hardwood floors of the cottage. She walked into the washroom and flicked on the light. She could hear the silent breathing of William in the next room. Lucky Bastard, she thought miserably and splashed some cool water on her pale skin. She filled a glass with fresh water and drank it down, quite quickly. She dumped the remainder down the drain, fighting off the urge to go into WIlliam's urge and drench him in it just to be funny. She laughed imagining how funny it would be to see William running after her like they had done as children. She remembered their vacation to the beach, her with her pigtails and he with his moppy red locks. She had chased him up and down the beach for splashing water on her.  
  
"Maybe I could show him how it feels." She thought. She grinned in her myschievious grin and opened the door to William's room a slight crack. William was lying in an odd position in bed. She smiled eviously, thinking to herself, "My day has come!"  
  
"HEY!" William grabbed her arm and splashed the water into the air. Meredith burst out laughing. He could help it. Her in her white ducky pyjamas and he in his old T shirt and boxers. She wiped the water off her face, still giggling.  
  
"What were you trrying to do?" He asked her.  
  
"Get back at you for that day on the beach." She said innocently. She had a perfection to her, even with her pear shaped hips and a slight baby fat waist.  
  
"You still remember that?"  
  
"Yep, and the day you decapitated every single one of my Barbies and the day you put a snake in my sleeping bag and the day you put a bat in my room." He laughed. Every summer he had pulled a prank on her, and she had basically recounted all of them. He laughed a little more.  
  
"So what are you doing up at 3 am?" He asked her. She sat down on the floor.  
  
"Couldn't sleep." She said, holding the now mpty cup of water in her damp hand. "Sorry if I woke you."  
  
"I can't sleep either." He lied. He could sleep, but he knew Meredith would be up. And yet consciously he couldn't remember how he knew, he just had known Meredith was up the whole time.  
  
Meredith looked over at him, then shifted her attention back to the ceiling. She stared at the ceiling for a moment, tracing the swirling hardwood planks up and down the wall. William looked over at Meredith.  
  
"Hungry?" He asked her. She nodded.  
  
"Very." She said. He bit his tongue. How had he known that?  
  
"Then let's go fnd some food." He said, and Meredith followed.  
  
Being very quiet as not to wake anyone, Meredith and William creaked down the hall. They were at the landing when they heard them, hushed voices in Meredith's parent's room.  
  
Between Scully and Reyes.  
  
"Stop." Meredith whispered. SHe thought she heard her name in the conversation, but she couldn't be sure. The conversation ceased for a moment. Meredith had a sinking feeling they had been found out, but in a moment the two began talking again.  
  
"What are they fighting about?" William asked Meredith. She put a finger to her lips. She eased herself into the wall veru unsteadily. She knew eavesdropping was wrong, but as her father always said, "No one has the right to talk about you behind your back." She listened in. SHe could feel William's shaky breath on the back of her neck.  
  
"What do you mean Dana?" Monica was talking now. For some reason Fox and John weren't there. Maybe they were out on the back porch drunk and passed out. She could hear her mother's unrestlessness. "You knew there was something different about William. You knew it because you're his mother. I feel the same thing with Meredith like there's something just not right with her."  
  
"But Meredith was a normal baby." Dana replied. Meredith breathed silently, trying to keep her chest from heaving. WIlliam was now listening intently too.  
  
"I don't get it." Monica said, taking a moment to gather her thoughts. "She seemed normal at first but now its like she's different. Neither me nor John had that blond of hair naturally and her face is different from both of us. Its like we're not her real parents."  
  
"Monica I was there when you gave birth. You are her mother and father."  
  
"This isn't just about Meredith though Dana, its about William too. Have you noticed how we haven't aged almost at all since we gave birth. John still looks great when most men his age are losing hair! And what about the scars Agent Mulder got from his abduction? Have you even slightly noticed that they're going away?"  
  
"Monica..." Dana seemed to trail off. She stopped suddenly. Meredith pressed herself hard into the wall. She heard footsteps towards the door. The door opened. Meredith closed her eyes and held onto William's hand.  
  
"Please don't let them see us...please don't let them see us..." She and William chanted in their heads.  
  
Scully looked up and down the hall blindly. Meredith opened her eyes. Scully closed the door and went back inside.  
  
Meredith looked over at WIlliam. He looked over at her, releaved that neither Reyes or Scully had seen them listening in on their arguement.  
  
The two decided they'd heard enough. Quickly and quietly they hurried down the stairs and outside into the cool night air for a privet conversation.  
  
"How is it that she didn't see us?" William asked Meredith. She seemed as confused as him. She looked up into her mom's room. The lights were out now. I wonder if they noticed our beds are empty... She thought to herself. She started pacing.  
  
"She looked directly at us." She said for the third time now. "She saw us, she had to have seen us."  
  
"And yet, she returned to the room." Said William. "She went back in like we weren't there."  
  
Meredith nodded. This mist rolled off the lake and onto the edge of the forest just below the back porch.  
  
"What did she mean by how they never age?" She asked William.  
  
"Well, that is kind of true, I mean, my mom doesn't look a day over 30, maybe 40 and its true in pictures they haven't changed very much." He added. Meredith stopped pacing and slumped into a lawn chair.  
  
"Why were they arguing over us?" William wanted to ask, but knew the answer to that reply.  
  
"They were arging over us for the same reason that we became somehow invisible." Meredith said, as if she knew what he was thinking. He looked down at her.  
  
"How did you?"  
  
"You just said clear as day, why were they arguing over us."  
  
"No I didn't."  
  
"You were always a bad liar Will."  
  
"But I'm not lying so doesn't that mean I always look like I'm lying when I tell the truth?" Meredith bit her tongue, but didn't get it. She had heard him, distinctly say, "Why were they arguing about us?"  
  
"Come on Blondie let's go back to bed." He and Meredith walked back into the cottage, trying to forget the evening's events, but something inside them both told them that yes, it was true that Monica and Dana were arguing about how they had become invisible. 


	4. The Dream

Chapter 4 - The Dream  
  
  
  
William awoke the next morning. He turned over several times before standing up and making a brief attempt to walk. The sun just barely came up and over the horizon. He yawned, strecthed, then walked to the window and pulled the blinds open. It was a long way down to the lake from up there. He slid open the glass and felt the beautiful breeze come in and flood his room.  
  
He heard the rush of several birds fly off of tree limbs and the wind rustle the branches of the trees below. He loved the summed, it was always new and fresh and maybe that's why William loved it so much. The night before didn't even strike him until her turned around and Meredith was in his room.  
  
"Morning." He said with a grin. Meredith smiled at him. She walked, her feet making not a sound on the floor, no creaking, nothing. She came to William and seductively placed a finger to his lips. He didn't know what she was doing but very slowly she lead him into her room, as quietly as she had enterred. He smiled a little, wanting to ask her what the hell she was doing. But she brought her face closer to his and said very silently, "Shhh."  
  
She walked through the bathroom not turning around once. He couldn't help but smile. The door to her room opened and her was lead inside by her, her darned and matted curls pinned to the back of her head with chopsticks, her eyes reflecting the very world. She left him in the middle of her room, spun around and stood on top of the desk chair in her room. He was amused by this, but humouring her obvious prank her let it slide. He laughed, trying to cover it up in spite of himself. She smiled once more at him, then pulled the light covering off the ceiling. He was about to ask her what she was doing now, as she was really freking him out when he saw it, what looked to be an eye under her light. She stepped off the chair. He looked at the eye. It followed Meredith. She approached William.  
  
"It watches, all the time." She said. "It tells them who we are, it tells them what we are. They know my dark angel, they know who and what we are. It is time that you must be protected. I am your saviour, as you are the saviour of the Earth. I will be there when you are broken and mangled. Understand me now, they do not play games. They do not play. They are the enemy. They are who you must fear."  
  
"Who?" William asked her. Meredith pulled him down the hall, to the landing, then past the long windows. He looked around, as they lost height the world became more and more engulfed in darkness. He tried to see Meredith but very soon she too disappearred. He turned around and tried to see something. There was nothing but black.  
  
A light came down from what he thought was up. The light trailed over everything, dancing off the edges of the void, coming back. William avoided it. He took a step forward. The blackness became deeper. His head started to hurt. Suddenly the void was filled with a loud sound. His ears began pounding. The whole world was filled with light. He covered his eyes, and took another step. He opened them, trying to get his eyes to adjust. He saw a new vision. Doctors standing around a table, around someone on the table. They spoke in hushed voices, in dream like text. He walked to them, and looked over their shoulders. They didn't notice him. He saw the woman on the table, eyes wide open and drained of all security. Her red hiar creating for her some pillow.  
  
It was his mother.  
  
Her head turned with her wide eyes staring at him.  
  
"It was all for you, so we could protect you." She said. "All for you my darling William, all for you." William was horrified.  
  
"What was?"  
  
"We wanted to protect you, wanted to keep you safe." She kept on going like she was delirious. He placed his hand on her forehead. But suddenly, she was gone as most of the dream.  
  
"She and the other were subjected to it." He heard the familliar voice of Meredith from behind him. He turned around. Meredith came to him in a long gown. She stepped forward, her light small in the void of darkness. She approached him, her blond hair endowed with tiny rosebuds.  
  
"Close your eyes." She carefully unfolded a scarf and spead it across his eyes. He couldn't be sure what was going on anymore. She tied it and stepped back. "You must break through the scarf William, you must see with clear eyes." He peeled off the scarf.  
  
"Enough mystery Meredith." He said. Meredith shook her head.  
  
"There will always be mystery my dark avenger. Always." She left him there. She walked away, her long gown coving the floor in rosebuds and flowering petals. He walked after her. The roses cracked and dried at his feet, leaving a trail of a dead garden.  
  
"Merry?" He called after her. He laughed a little. This wasn't funny anymore. He was about to sit down and contemplate his awakening from the dream when he saw light. He turned around. The light radiated from a tube, glass in its structure filled with a brown liquid. He could see a face inside, perfect and still alive. He walked to it, when suddenly a hand appeared on the glass wall and two very familliar blue eyes stared out at her.  
  
"William?" Meredith shook William. He was sweating in his sleep. He snapped awake. The second he saw Meredith's blue eys he screamed.  
  
"William?" She said. He calmed down. He looked at her. Her hair was pinned to the back of her head with two chopsticks. He sighed. He remembered the eye on her ceiling. It had only been a dream.  
  
"You were shivering." She said. He got up. Meredith looked at him confused. He walked through the bathroom and into Meredith's room and pulled the desk chair over. Now it was Meredith in the centre of the room. He unscrewed the lamp covering and pulled it off. There was no eye, nothing. So it had been a dream after all. He was about to pull away when he saw something fixed to the ceiling on the knob where the screw fits on. He pulled it off.  
  
"Its a camera." He said. A look of fear came onto Meredith's face. 


	5. Watchers

Chapter 6 - Watchers  
  
  
  
"A camera? William? You're really starting to sound like your father." The two of them were once again in the woods, avoiding all contact with their parents, or trying to. Meredith had been shouting at him for the past minute now. She slumped down onto a stump. William sighed.  
  
"You okay?" He asked her. She sighed and gave him a quick, "hmph." He came to her and knelt by her.  
  
"You're not even sure if it was a camera." She said. "You just found a piece of metal that looked like a camera." He nodded.  
  
"What was it doing there?" He asked her.  
  
"Who knows but I am not going to believe it was a camera, not yet, not without actual proof."  
  
"You know you are really starting to sound like my mom. Have you ever heard her and my dad argue about cases they've worked on before? Her with all her scientific beliefs and my dad full of alien crap."  
  
"But its the truth William, that could have been anything." She looked at him, her clear blue eyes seemingly reflecting the world.  
  
"But isn't it strange how there's cameras in the house and your mother and my mother are fighting the night before I find it?"  
  
"Coincidense, but also, how the hell did you find what looks to be a camera anyways William?"  
  
He sighed. He was about to sound even more crazy.  
  
"I had a dream about it." He said. Meredith gave him a look of pure insanity.  
  
"A dream." She said. He nodded.  
  
"William you're an idiot." She said and stood up. He looked down at the ground. Meredith looked back and him.  
  
"You can't honestly believe that some dream you had justifies that tiny piece of metal as a camera!" She said. "That cottage is old William that metal could have been the screw of the lamp cover breaking off. It could have been anything! And you immediately dub it as a camera." She took a deep breath of summer air in, her hair falling out in tiny locks.  
  
William stood up. Meredith was fretting. She really starting to sound like his mom.  
  
"Well, Miss Doggett," He said in a sarcastic tone, "If its not a camera, why are we out here?" Meredith gaped. She took a deep breath in.  
  
"Screw you William Scully!" She couldn't explain it. He walked to her. She looked up at him, his green eyes the colour of the pine trees. He and she stood there for a moment, contemplating their next move.  
  
"Look, we have to tell our parents."  
  
"No," WIlliam said, "We tell no one. If those are cameras they'll kill our parents for knowing they exist."  
  
"So what do we do?" Meredith asked him.  
  
"We wait." He said. "They have to install a new camera in your room somehow. We wait until night fall."  
  
"That's your plan?" Meredith made sure.  
  
"Yep."  
  
"This is going to be a long night." She said. William smiled. "Who gets first shift?" She asked him.  
  
"Ladies first." He said, before running off. She chased him off through the woods.  
  
~  
  
"Having fun?" Monica asked them as they climbed the stairs, leaving mud tracks on the wooden staircase.  
  
"She started it." William said. He pointed a muddy finger at Meredith. She was soaked from head to toe in it, but she didn't seem to mind a bit.  
  
"How was I supposed to know about the mud puddle in the middle of the path?" Monica sighed. She laughed a little, the appearances of her godson and her daughter were amusing. William couldn't believe it.  
  
"I tackled him mom." She whispered, then was very careful as she enterred the house as not to get any mud on the floors.  
  
"I suppose you'll be going for a swim next."  
  
"Damn straight mother!"  
  
"Watch your language." John mentioned as she walked by him to go upstairs.  
  
"Hell yes dad." She said. He wasn't amused. She laughed. William was already in his room, removing his soiled clothes. She walked into her own room and was about to take off her shirt. She remembered the camera. She was very careful about showing herself and after what would have taken her ten minutes, she was ready in about 30.  
  
"Took you long enough." He said.  
  
"So remind me again why we have to wait until night fall? Can't they just walk right in?"  
  
"Nope." He said, a little proud of himself. "These guys obviously since I can't think of a reason why they would shove a camera into your room and not mine, have to wait until night time. Your parents and my parents are going around. They can't be seen."  
  
Meredith nodded, a patch of meud still on her right cheek. He wiped it off. She felt his smooth palm leave her face, but could still feel the warmth on her cheek. She adjust her bikini strap but her eyes dwelt onto William's abs. Not like she was interested, alothough, they had come up at some very eventful sleepover parties she thrown.  
  
Meredith watched as William dove into the water. She relaxed in her chair, a book in her hands. He watched her.  
  
"Where has your life gone?" He asked her. She laughed a little. Their parents were still up at the cottage, hopefull y they wouldn't be down for a while.  
  
"Did I have one William Scully?" She asked him. He smiled. She opened up to her chapter. He read it. Shakesphear.  
  
"Meredith don't tell me your going Juliet on me."  
  
"Ophelia." She said. "Juliet's for my next job."  
  
"Oh yeah whatever." He splashed her affectionately." She put the book down. William was gone.  
  
"William Scully if you pull me in..." She didn't finish. William's hand shot up and over the dock, and she was met with water.  
  
"You'll do what?" He asked her as she surfaced.  
  
"This!" She grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him under. He laughed and came up choking. He looked at Meredith. She swam out into the water.  
  
The sun started to go down before they went back to the house. Darkness was swamping them Meredith looked at her watch. 7:30.  
  
"How did we spend 7 hours in the water?" She asked him. He shrugged. Meredith smiled and readjusted her bikini one last time.  
  
"Well I'm starving." He said. Meredith agreed. She and William walked slowly up to the house...  
  
Little knowledge of the man in the bushes. 


	6. Death, or Something Like It

Chapter 6 - Death, or Something Like It  
  
  
  
Meredith stretched out on her bed. William was asleep next to her. She had been running her minicured nails gently through his hair, unknown to him. Her father had stopped in, then dismissed himself upon seeing them alone together. No doubt he mentioned something discretely to Dana and Fox, she thought to herself.  
  
She looked at her watch every now and then, counting down the minutes till the time when she could shake William awake and he could take this sorry excuse for a job away from her. She went through more of her Ophelia lines, just to be sure. She had a production of it as soon as she got back. The play company had made some exceptions and allowed her to go to the lake for a week, but if she didn't return in time, her understudy and her would switch roles. She sighed and mouthed the words to herself dreamily, using William as an unconscious Hamlet and her pillow as the ghost. She joked around a little. William stirred, groaned, then drifted back asleep.  
  
She was a little more careful about how she practised after that. She read through two more chapters, bordom over taking her. She set the book on her desk and looked around the room. If anyone had been in here she thought, I would have noticed them wouldn't I of? She doubted herself, then decided she was thirsty, that was it. She would get a glass of water out of the bathroom. She walked a short distance, and started running the tap, but a banging of the window signalled her. She walked into her room. The darkness was over taking. She looked around.  
  
Just my mind, she thought, until she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.  
  
She whipped around. A figure was in the shadows by her closet.  
  
"William!" She said and something jumped out and said BOO!  
  
"William you jackass." She said and pushed him off her. He clapped. She slammed the door shut.  
  
"Oh your face was priceless." He said.  
  
"So was your when you and the pillow shared a tender moment." She said. He looked at her confused. She shrugged her shoulders. He didn't know what she was talking about, but he had a strange feeling he didn't want to.  
  
She and William sat on the bed once more. She looked out the windows. He looked at the stairs.  
  
"They couldn't come in any other way right?" She asked him. He shrugged.  
  
"I thought you said they'd come." She said moodily.  
  
"I know and they will, trust me."  
  
"The last time I trusted you pulled me under the dock." He laughed a little. She leaned against the wall. He put his head on her leg, afraid she would push it off. But she didn't. He lack of sleep the night before had made her quite tired. He sat up and watched her eyes close. He thought of some stuff to pull on her but he didn't. He took the next watch.  
  
It was around 1:00 am before they were both asleep.  
  
"Meredith!" He snapped quietly in front of her face. She awoke, and she obviously knew why he clapped his hand over her mouth. She breathed silently. He looked in fear at the window, the figure shattering the glass. Meredith saw William wait, and wait, for the figure to enter the dark room. William had turned out the reading lamp.  
  
Whoever it was flopped on the floor. William was silent. The man walked through the room and out into the dimly lit hall.  
  
"Now." William whispered. He and Meredith went after whoever it was, tackling him and knocking the black dressed man down the stairs. The two of the walked down after he had fallen, to investigate the body.  
  
"Think he's..." Meredith began, but never finished. The body stirred and looked up and the bulky face mace of a man looked out. The tow of them looked at one another, the man, then one another again, and then finally ran. The man went after them, refraining from going back upstairs.  
  
"What the fuck is this guy?" William asked Meredith as they rushed into the kitchen. The man at the bottom of the stairs followed them. He walked faster then the two of them could sprint.  
  
"I don't really want to find out." Meredith said, and opened the back door. She and William ran off into the night. The man followed. For every step he took they had to take three. She and William were out of breath, the two terenagers getting cold in the night air, and unable to know where their pursuer lurked.  
  
That's when it appearred. The light from the heavens. It shot down like a radiant fireball, striking the ground, landing just beside Meredith. She doubled back. The man was advancing towards her. William acted upon impulse. He ran. The light was on top of Meredith now. He jumped and knocked Meredith away, but instead trapped himself within the light.  
  
Meredith ran towards the light. The man watched as William rose with it. He faced Meredith.  
  
"When you know the truth, he will be returned." She jumped for him, but just as the light had came, it disappearred and so did the man, taking William with it. 


	7. Moving On

Note: I don't own the characters and story from Moulin Rouge and sorry for using it but I had no other ideas!  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 7 - Moving On  
  
  
  
Merdith thought she sounded like an idiot and looked like one too. She crossed the stage in her costume, the feathery skirt drifting along the floor. She and the theatre were doing their dress rehersal that night. How was she supposed to sing, let alone sing and dance in this ridiculous costume?  
  
And yet, playing Satine in their production of Moulin Rouge was possibly the coolest thing she had ever done. She got to be the star and was truely intriged by the role. She was 17 now, fair and beautiful, her long golden curls currently pinned to her head adorned with flowers, her face currently hidden behind a mask of powder and make up, and all circulation being cut off from her upper chest area by the tight costume that was to make her look the part of a whore.  
  
She stood there for a moment, waiting for John Poe to come out, donned in his Christian garments. She stood there, feathery fan in her hand and her eyelashes batting. There was John, coming onto the stage. She prepared for their big death number, when the doors to the theatre burst open.  
  
Meredith sighed. She walked off the stage. Her father was there.  
  
"Yes dad?" She asked him, straightening her costume so he didn't think she was completely insane. He looked at her, in her costume and make up.  
  
"Look you cannot diss the costume I had no choice in the matter." He didn't look like he was here to lecture her about the costume.  
  
"Dinner reservations for me, your mother and your aunt and uncle or did you forget?" Meredith nearly shouted out,"Fuck!" To the whole auditorium, but she refrained from doing so.  
  
"We're at the end I'll meet you there." He looked at her. She gave him an assuring galnce. Then he kissed her on the cheek, despite her 17 year old pride and she walked back to the stage. The director looked cross, but she hated him anyways.  
  
"And you're dead!" He shouted out. Meredith went limp. John began his worst fake crying. She sighed. John was never good at tradgedies, although he did a good job at Romeo and Juliet the year before. Maybe it was because he was only stage manager.  
  
"Bravo!" The director called out. Meredith stood up, brushed herself off and looked at her watch. She had to get moving.  
  
"Bye John!" She called to him from the parking lot. He waved. She could only smile and tossed her costumes into the back seat in a heap and opened the driver's door. Her mother had let her borrow their car, since they had rented a car for the evening. Probably a night of beer and parties, she thought to herself bitterly.  
  
As she drove to the restaurant, fixing her hair and make up as she went, she flicked around on the radio. She placed a final bobby pin into her curly locks, then continued to channel surf on the radio waves. She sang along to most of them as she had nothing better to with her time at home then sing to her CD's and was often caught by her parents in nothing but her pyjamas with a brush in her hand in front of a mirror. But they never brought it up at any of her parties or with any of her friends luckily.  
  
She pulled into the parking lot. She never understood her parents obssession with Chinese food. Her uncle and aunt had come from New York to spend a while with them, but Meredith wasn't really looking forward to seeing them. Her uncle and Aunt were party people and much preferred to get drunk and hire prostitutes then be with their family. Once Meredith had awakened and saw them in the guest room with two prostitues each. She had never been close with them after that.  
  
She walked across the parking lot, her purse at her side. She fumbled with several items, fixing her coat, her hair, her make up and lipstick. But she went unnoticed. She walked through the foyer, several doormen eyeing her. SHe was about to scream,"What do I have something on my face?" When she enterred in the restaurant and waited in line to find her table.  
  
She looked out over the heads of the restaurants. She couldn't see her parents and her aunt and uncle. Maybe it was the other chinese restaurant, she thought. She could see several cooks preparing dishes in the tiny window in the kitchen. Meredith could smell dinner. Her stomach growled. She couldn't take the wait. That's when she saw her parents. Her father waved discretely. She smiled sweetly. Her aunt and uncle waved too, bigger and more frenatically.  
  
"Let's go reap the whirlwind." She thought, and almost started crying when it wasn't her voice in her head, it was William's.  
  
"He's gone." She told herself. "He's gone and there's nothing you can do about it."  
  
But something inside told her he wasn't that far away. 


	8. Formal Comeback

Chapter 8 - Formal Comeback  
  
  
  
Meredith's emptiness consumed her. She felt like she wanted to puke. Formal that year was not going to be fun, she thought. She twirled around in her dress once more in front of her full length mirror. She latched on her crucifix that Dana had bought her when she and William turned six and her charm bracelet. Then checked her hair over. The hairdresser had done a really good job, she thought. She smiled at herself, finishing painting up her face. She sat on the edge of her bed and contemplated her life. She knew that it was stupid, but her date was late and her mind was racing. She needed to do something.  
  
She draped the scarf over her neck, not covering up the silver chain that had her crucifix on it and let it fall down her slender back. She straightened out her red and orange skirt. SHe loved that dress. She looked at her clock radio. 6:30. Damn it, she scolded herself for accepting a date from John Poe, that numbskull. What did he know about being on time?  
  
"Mere!" He mother called from the base of the attic stairs. Meredith had her room moved up there when she was thirteen. She had some of the best sleepovers up there. She walked to her door, took a deep breath in, then braced herself to walk down the stairs.  
  
"You look beautiful." He mother said, her chesnut hair clipped back. She was doing housework, Meredith told herself. "John just got here."  
  
"Thanks mom." She said and walked down the slightly winding staircase.  
  
"Have fun sweetie." She said. Yeah whatever Mom, she said miserably. John stood at the door, a white rose in his hand.  
  
"Hey gorgeous." He said. Meredith put on her I'll-smile- just-for-the-hell-of-it with her actress's charm. John sensed something, she knew that, but she would never had admitted to anyone, even her mother, that she wished it was William with his moppy locks of red hair and bright green eyes she wanted here in a black tuxedo. She and John walked to John's car. John had a jeep. She loved being friends, but since neither of them had a date, they decided to give it a try, dating that is. Meredith swallowed the lump in her throat, and decided, "I might as well make the best of it."  
  
It was 7:00 when they reached the highschool. Meredith walked in, proud and tall next to John who was a little shorter then her in her heels. She giggled a little, but silenced herself when he had no idea what she was laughing at.  
  
The gym was packed with teens, some drunk as Meredith could tell, some sober, and others who had no intention of dancing, as she could see from the dance floor. They had brought a game boy or something and sat with the electronics club or something. Meredith was happy to see her friends though. John left when all the fast ongs were on, leaving Meredith to gossip.  
  
Loralie was the only one who didn't have a date. She and Meredith had been friends for a good four years now and Meredith and her were the only girls who were known to come to dances without dates. Even semiformal they showed up as a "couple".  
  
"You're not having fun are you?" Loralie asked her when they went to go sit down. She twirled her curled brown locks between her fingers.  
  
"Is it that obvious?" Meredith said. She and Loralie laughed a little. They were still like they were when they were five. Meredith and her could laugh at the most pointless things.  
  
"Well I'm leaving ya wanna come with?" She said quickly. Meredith nodded tiredly. She and Loralie walked out of the gym, Meredith slipping in a few words to John who was doing a bad job of pretending not to flirt with the exchange student.  
  
Meredith enterred her house that night, her parents still awake and in the next room watching TV.  
  
"I'm home!" She called. They laughed in acknowledgement. She walked into the kitchen, her skirt dragging on the ground. She slumped into a chair, not looking to see if she was sitting in anything. She was about to fall asleep on the table when the phone rang. Since her parents were obviously a little buzzed, she grabbed hte portable phone.  
  
"Hello?" She said.  
  
"Meredith Doggett?" The woman on the other line said.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Do you know a William Scully?" They asked her. Her heart skipped a beat.  
  
"I did but he went missing a year ago." She said, trying to choke down her tears.  
  
"This is Georgetown Memorial Hospital. William Scully was just brought here. He asked for you."  
  
The phone hit the floor... 


	9. Piece of a Fallen Angel

Note: The company Gucci is not mine.  
  
  
  
Chapter 9 - Piece of a Fallen Angel  
  
  
  
Meredith ran out to the car. She had no time to stop, and she didn't stop. The fact that her parent's might want to know where she was going and the fact that they would have wanted to know where she was going had completely skipped her mind. She started the car, knowing now her parents had already heard her run out of the house in a frenzy. She started her mother's car and drove, speeding a little but being very cautious not to get a ticket until she finally go to the emergency wing.  
  
"Where is he?" She demanded several nurses.  
  
"Where is who?"  
  
"William Scully!"  
  
"Are you Meredith?"  
  
"Yes?" She turned to face a pretty intern with brown hair and green eyes.  
  
"I can help you." She said. "But I need to ask you some questions" Meredith nodded. "First off, where are his parents?"  
  
"You haven't been able to reach them?" She blurted out. "They're on vacation, um I have their cell phone numbers but please where is he?" SHe lied a little. Dana and Fox weren't on vacation, they were given a manditory leave because of their consumed effort to find William. She couldn't help smiling, but knew she was crying on the inside.  
  
"Its alright Meredith, calm down a little. We have their cell phone numbers and we're trying everything to contact them. As an answer to you second question he's having a CAT scan. How are you related to the patient?" The intern said. She and Meredith began walking down the hall to one of the X-Ray rooms.  
  
"Why does he need a CAT scan?" She asked.  
  
"I'm not allowed to tell you anything else unless you are directly related to the patient."  
  
God damn hospital interns, Meredith thought. She used her best acting skills.  
  
"I'm his sister." She said.  
  
"His sister." The nurse said nodding her head as if she was saying, That's a sad excuse for a lie.  
  
"Okay so we dont look related but we are siblings."  
  
"Right. My name's Trish by the way. He was found in a forest clearing a little while away from town. He had some odd marks on his head and some blood coming from his nose and right temple." She said. "Police have been finger printing and pardon my french but shit like that ever since the sheriff found him."  
  
"Is he conscious?" She sounded like her godmother.  
  
"He's been in and out since we got him here." She said. "All he can do is ask for you though. So we pulled some strings and here you are. Is a, is this a bad time?" She looked at Meredith's dress under Meredith's red dress jacket.  
  
"I was just at Spring Formal." She said. "Can I see him?"  
  
"He's still having some tests done but there's a waiting room over there. I'll tell you when he's in a room."  
  
"Thank you." Meredith felt a little better. "And where's your phones?"  
  
"Over there." Trish pointed her towards several payphones. Meredith nodded.  
  
"By the way, Miss Doggett?" Meredith turned, flinching at her name.  
  
"Next time, just tell me the truth." She opened the door to the testing rooms. Meredith sighed. Just so long as it wasn't a felony she had just committed she was okay. But in the mean time she had some parents to contact.  
  
"Hello?" He dad came on the phone.  
  
"Dad?"  
  
"Meredith where have you been?" He demanded to her on the phone.  
  
"Look I know your gonna freak." She said and sighed. She could hear his impatience on the other line. "William just sort of showed up in some forest clearing and he's in the hospital. I'm at Georgetown memorial."  
  
"We'll be right over." He said.  
  
"No wait, they can't get a hold of Aunt Dana and Uncle Fox." She never referred to Fox as Uncle and often forgot the aunt on Dana but she figured it was her parents. They were scattered brained people anyways. "Do you have a way of reaching them?"  
  
"We'll call them on our way." Her mother was now on the line. "They gave us their number just in case."  
  
"Thanks I'll see you guys when you get over here."  
  
"Where are you?"  
  
"Emergency waiting room." She said.  
  
"Bye." She said, and the phone on the other line clicked. She walked to a chair and dropped herself into it. Several families were there, looking at her oddly. SHe had to admit she looked rather dumb in a full length gown and scarf underneath a formal red dress coat and Gucci pumps. Some children were playing with the toys and parents had magazines and their eyes seemed to go from the page to Meredith, back to the magazine.  
  
The emptiness that was at Formal left her again, but filled her with despair. Were they even sure that it was William? She hadn't seen him in seven months. She looked at her Roxy watch. 11:36 She leaned into a wall. She was pretty tired. She looked at her watch. 11:37. Her head collapsed into her arms. She felt lost in a flash of pain for a moment.  
  
"Miss Doggett." Trish had shown up beside her. SHe was on her feet in an instant.  
  
"Whoa, its okay." Trish said. "He's not out yet. But the phone is for you."  
  
"Have you reached his parents yet?"  
  
"Yes, your parents called just a moment ago." She said. "They're on the next flight back from whereever they were."  
  
"And another question before I take this call. WHat forest was he found in."  
  
"It was a place about an hour out of Washington." SHe said. "Someones lake cabin."  
  
Meredith's heart skipped a beat. That was had to be their cabin. And if it had been, he had been returned to the place where he had been taken. She took the phone from one of the secretaries. Trish went back into the testing rooms.  
  
"Hello?" She said groggily, while watching for her parents outside.  
  
"Hello Miss Doggett." She heard the voice, but was positive she had heard it before.  
  
"Who is this?" She demanded.  
  
"Just a friend." The man said. "You want answers don't you, about why William was returned."  
  
"Yes." She said, unknowingly to the unknown source.  
  
"After school tomorrow come alone to the park where you and WIlliam used to play as children." The voice said. Meredith had no idea why, but she listened. "I will be there and I can give you answers."  
  
"Why should I listen to you?"  
  
"Just remember Meredith, when blood comes from the holy wounds, blood comes from him."  
  
"What?" She demanded him. But the voice was gone. 


	10. Visions of the Dead

Note: I own neither the companies Guess Jeans, or Cosmopolitan. Also the song Your Song doesn't belong to me either.  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 10 - Visions of the Dead  
  
  
  
Being alone in the hospital gave Meredith time to think. She went over some songs in her head, mainly those from her upcoming performance and went through the lines. She slumped back down in a chair and awaited her parents' arrival. Hopefully they'll bring me some better clothes, she thought to herself. She straightened her skirt out anyways though, and waited for the intern to come back.  
  
Annoyed she picked up a newspaper from the table beside her, every now and then looking back down at her watch. 11:35, 11:40, she kept the numbers in her head for something to do. Minutes seemed like hours as she flipped through the pages of Cosmopolitan, looking at all the models and comparing their straight uncurved bodies to her pudgy, curvy, pear shaped body. She felt her self esteem go down when a Guess Jean ad came up and she threw the magazine onto the table.  
  
She placed her hands on her lap and looked ahead of her. Children were sleeping on their parents' laps and she remembered when she was a little girl, waking up from a bad dream and running into her parents' room and hopping into bed with them, feeling her father's arms hugging her and telling her it was okay and her mother making room for her. She felt a lump come into her throat and she leaned into the wall, depressed and angry at how fast her childhodd ended. She looked at her watch again. 11:45. Her parents should be there soon. She tapped her fingers on the table to the tune of Your Song by Elton John. Ever since John had performed it in their production, she had been obssessed with it. She mouthed the words to herself, looking as if she was having a whole conversation with herself.  
  
She silently sat there, bored out of her mind when someone tapped her on the shoulder.  
  
"He's in his room now." Trish said. "512, just over there...Do you have parents or something?"  
  
"I just called them." Meredith said. "How is he?"  
  
"He's breathing by himself which is an improvement. He'll be fine. In a few hours he'll wake up, hopefully not until morning." Trish said.  
  
"Can I see him?" Meredith asked hopefully.  
  
Trish nodded. Meredith thanked her graciously, and the intern went back to the desk. Meredith braced herself. She couldn't believe it. She walked down the hall, the numbers 512 burning into her mind, constantly reminding her that this was her chance. She walked slowly, her shoes tapping and sending echoes down the hall. She opened the door. The room was a little dark. She closed the door behind her, the dim light in the room coming from a tiny crack in the curtains looking out on the hospital. She looked down at the sleeping mass of her William, his red locks hanging down by his face. He was still a year older, with a discrete change to his perfect face. Meredith felt her heart nearly collapse on itself. She pulled the chair from the corner beside the bed. A tiny tube feeding him oxygen went from around his still perfect face and fed him oxygen through his nose. She smiled at him as she held his hand in hers.  
  
The door opened silently, and Doggett and Reyes enterred. Meredith didn't look up from her vigil on William's body. They stayed silent, moved by the visage they saw in front of them. Meredith turned finally. She looked directly at her parents. They came to her and she began to tear up.  
  
"Have they reached Dana and Fox?" Reyes asked her daughter.  
  
"Yes." She said. She wiped the tears forming in her eyes. She felt the salty fluid in her hands, then looked down at them in the little light she had. She moved her hand into thye small crack of light between the curtains and saw the red liquid on them  
  
Blood.  
  
She stood up.  
  
"Excuse me for a moment." She said. Her parents couldn't believe her. SHe walked out of the room and into the bathroom.  
  
Streaks of red flowed down her cheeks. She had been crying blood. She wiped the tears of blood off and threw some water on her face, washing off the pink eye make up and mascara she had put on before going to Formal. She washed her face clean and stood up, her eyes still closed and wiped off her face with some paper towel.  
  
When at last she did open her eyes, she kept a scream stiffled under her breath. Someone was there, watching her, looking at her. She looked behind her. The figure in the mirror was gone. She couldn't believe it. He was there and yet he wasn't. She looked back in the mirror. The figure was gone. Meredith closed her eyes and shook her head.  
  
Man, I have got to get more sleep, she thought. She opened the door, believing it all a dream, when the world rushed at her and suddenly images of people walking around her came into her eyesight. She felt them pass through her, into her and then out of her back. She turned around, watching images that no one else could see. She pressed herself against the window of William's room. The images didn't fade. She felt her heart stop within her chest and one of the dead images looked at her through white eyes. She felt fear prickle at the hairs on the back of her neck.  
  
Suddenly a rush of the images told her they were gone, but not for good. 


	11. Holy Wounds

Chapter 11 - Holy Wounds  
  
  
  
William became consciously aware of two things when he woke up. He knew he was alive for one thing and he knew he was being watched. He felt a warm touch on his hand, lulling him into wakefulness. He opened his eyes for the first time in a long time and he felt his head lighten up a little and upon becoming fully conscious he pulled his heavy arm up, but couldn't move his right hand. A beautiful mass of bland curls faced him. He sat up, aching all over and hearing the beep, beep beep of a heart moniter behind him. He pulled his hand gently from under Meredith's face, feeling her beautifully soft skin on the back of his hand. He had to admit she hadn't changed a bit. He closed his eyes once more, reflecting on what had happened. He remembered something.  
  
Lights.  
  
He opened his eyes as a flash of light came from above. What? He clued back into reality. Where the hell was he? He recognized the white sheets and walls to be that of a hospital room.  
  
Meredith stirred slightly. She closed her hand and felt nothing. She remembered nothing but leaning her head onto William's hand, then blackness. She moved the blanket off her back and sat up, clutching her head. William smiled at her waking form, her beautific angelic eyes, her blond curls hanging loosely with tiny pieces of baby's breath coming from them.  
  
Meredith looked up at William. He was awake.  
  
Awake, she thought. A new energy had formed in her. She stood up and grabbed her perfect redhead around the neck, nearly choking the life out of him. He dropped his hands onto her back, running his fingers along the bumpy grove on her spine. She massaged the back of his head, letting time dwindle in this moment forever and ever. Her William was back, and that was all that mattered to her.  
  
She released him, joyful tears she enabled to run down her face. He smiled at her, his teeth still inside his mouth, his body run down with his first moments of consciousness. He leaned back and let his head sink into his pillow.  
  
"Hey." She said. He smiled in acknowledgement. She couldn't keep her mind in the room. The intoxication of seeing him tired and weak from tests and pain killers was too much for her. She couldn't help but just smile.  
  
"How long have I been here?" He said groggily. Meredith got up and walked to the table. She poured him a glass of water.  
  
"Since last night." She handed it to him. The cold water rushed down his throat. He felt a little better, but still didn't return to the energetic William he had once been. Meredith didn't like the silence between them.  
  
"Meredith?" He said. She looked at him. "How long have I been gone?"  
  
Meredith hesitated.  
  
"Almost a year." She said in a monotonous tone. He groaned. She looked outside. She sighed.  
  
The door was thrown open. Meredith stepped back. Dana and Fox were there, as if by fate, by chance, without reason or sense. Meredith felt her emptiness consume her once more. She waved to William.  
  
"I'll be back in a little while." She said, placing a kiss on his forehead, drinking in his warm throbbing skin. His parents couldn't believe it. She walked out, avoiding their stares. She walked out wearily, the door closing behind her. She knew in her heart they needed to be alone with him. She fought back the tears she had wanted to cry, and walked out, proud and tall in her wrinkled $200 dress and sweaty coat.  
  
Her parent's car was gone, which told her they had probably gone home while she had been asleep. SHe had a moment to wake up, scold herself for not buying a coffee then stepped into her mom's car which had been left for her. She pushed the keys into the ignition. The car started and slowly she drove out of the parking lot, making a mental note to stop by the coffe shop and pick up something with extra caffeine.  
  
She stopped at the lights and turned the corner. She pulled over, gathering her thoughts, gasping for breath suddenly. She tried to open her, door but her hand slipped off. She looked at her hand. It was covered in blood. Pain coursed through her. It was one of those wounds that she hadn't noticed until she saw it. She could have cut it on anything. She pulled back the sleeve from her jacket.  
  
A hole went from the from of her wrist to the back. She could see clean through it. She looked at the other hand. Blood also dripped from that hand. Two holes in her wrists. She knew it know.  
  
"When holy wounds come, he will bleed." A rush of fear went through her body. She turned the car immediately and headed back for the hospital. The pain ebbed in her wrists and yet she didn't feel light headed or weak from blood loss.  
  
She walked into the hospital quickly, trying not to attract attention to herself. She walked past several rooms and burst into William's. This caught Dana and Fox by surprise. She felt like an idiot. William looked fine. Someone had obviously sedated him, he was asleep again. She said goodbye, digging her bloody hands into her pocket. The pain was gone, and she couldn't explain it. How had she mysteriously started bleeding? Something inside coursed in her stomach. "When holy wounds come, he will bleed." William looked fine. She suddenly came to a realization, and her stomach nearly tossed itself.  
  
"DAD!" 


	12. Naughty Naughty Girl

Chapter 12 - Naughty Girl  
  
  
  
Meredith was in her car and speeding towards her house in an instant. She didn't care if there was anyone in her way. She kept looking at her wrists. As she neared her house the blood worsened. She felt a little bit weak, but maybe that was from the realization that her wrists were spewing blood, and her mind was in a fit about her dad.  
  
The sun was just appearing in the horizon when she got to her house, but there was enough light from the ambulance's and police cars surrounding her house.  
  
She could only come to an abrupt stop. She felt her blood run cold, several chills go up her spine, her eyes clouding over with tears. He had known, and it wasn't just a feeling in her stomach. He had known everything. Her wrists dripped blood as she walked towards the scene. She no longer cared. She could have died right there, could have killed herself. She watched her mother follow several doctors into the ambulance. Her father on a stretcher, an oxygen mask on his face. Meredith stood up and out of the car and slammed the door, nearly catching her hand in the door. Her wrists began to burn, a constant burning.  
  
"Meredith!" Her mother called. Meredith watched her father, distant. The burning in her wrists continued. Her mother was at her side in an instant. Meredith pulled away, her breath in fast motions. Her mother looked at her. Meredith's lips quivered.  
  
"What happened." She demanded simply and sweetly.  
  
"Meredith..."  
  
"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED MOTHER!" She screamed. Two doctors turned. Meredith never used language like that in front of her mother. She was furious. She hadn't been there to save her father. This was her fault, his fate was because she didn't get there in enough time.  
  
"Meredith, your father is going to be okay." She said, trying to reassure her daughter. Meredith wasn't listening.  
  
"What happened!" She screamed again.  
  
Her mother sighed.  
  
"Your father's okay..."  
  
"Mother just tell me!" Meredith didn't calm down. The two doctors were coming over. Meredith felt blood cloud over her eyes once more. She looked at the trail of blood following her. Her hands felt limp. And yet it wasn't from blood loss.  
  
"Meredith your father was shot." The words were like a rude and cold awakening. Meredith's breathing quickened. She coughed a little.  
  
"When holy wounds come..." She said, her mind shutting down. She felt like she was hollow inside, like nothing could stop her from dying. William wasn't there, her father may be dying and she was slipping away from consciousness. "When holy wounds come, blood comes from him."  
  
"Meredith?" Her mother watched her daughter, Meredith's eyes shut for a moment.  
  
Two more tears of blood streamed down her face.  
  
"Holy wounds." She held up her wrist. Her mother's blood left her face. Meredith pressed a bloody hand against her chest.  
  
More blood seeped through.  
  
On her bare feet two more wounds had gouged themselves.  
  
Monica fainted.  
  
Meredith collapsed to her knees.  
  
"When holy wounds come..."  
  
And suddenly she knew no more.  
  
~  
  
"Miss Doggett, your daughter may possibly be a stigmatic." Meredith heard hushed voices, but couldn't picture them on someone and for that matter anything. She turned her head, trying to clear it, then opened her eyes.  
  
White, all she saw was white.  
  
She pulled her hand up, the sharp stinging came from the IV butterfly in her hand. She could feel bandages around her wrists, her chest and her bare feet. As she willed herself out of her shock and stress induced sleep, she sat up, feeling somewhat relaxed, but in other words she wanted out. Meredith had never been good as a patient in hospitals, not since she had her tonsils removed. She hated the way they always smelled so new, how they always made her feel helpless and sick.  
  
She looked out the window beside her bed, her hair still up and her Formal dress replaced by a hospital gown and ugly white pyjama pants. She looked at the bandages. They were useless, she saw the blood content minimal. She looked around the small hospital room. No one was there, but her mother's coat and a bag of clothes with her recognizable red top were on the chair.  
  
Thank God, she thought, they brought me clothes. She pulled her legs out from under the sheet, careful not to set off the alarm she knew they tied onto her wrist so the nurses knew she was awake. She pulled off the string and the IV butterfly from her hand, then tested her feet on the floor.  
  
Not surprisingly they worked, and very soon she was walking to the bag of clothing on the chair.  
  
She looked at her watch as she changed, quickly and free from pain, looking under the bandage that stretched around her chest. The wound was gone. Her feet were perfect once again, but her wrists, they didn't stop, but the bleeding had slowed.  
  
Once she had been changed she looked out the window. She saw her mother outside, a Doctor in front of her.  
  
I've got to get out of here, Meredith told herself. I've got to see William. I've got to find my father.  
  
Meredith had her father's mind, which explained why she was quick witted but her mother's conventional thoughts. Conventional was the wrong word. Meredith had an Actress's imagination. She grabbed her mother's coat.  
  
"Sorry mom." She said, pulled it onto her and felt for the keys to her mother's car. They were still there, but there was a good chance she rode in the ambulance. Meredith didn't care if they pumped her up with codeine and morphine if they found her evading hospital treatment, she could try.  
  
She opened the door silently, as not to draw as much as a single drop of attention. She turned her head around and walked silently. Her heart pounded, and her mother was oblivious to the sounds of her daughter running off. Meredith walked down the halls, into the elevator, and out to safety.  
  
Meredith sighed in relief when she saw her mother's car parked not far from the exit. She ran to it, no pain from where the holy wounds used to be.  
  
She started the car, afraid her mother would have discovered Meredith's disappearance by now. Meredith started the car. She pushed it into reverse and drove off, not wanting to look back, wanting to get away.  
  
Wanting answers.  
  
Meredith heard the voice over and over.  
  
After school tomorrow.  
  
Not sure if it was tomorrow or next week, she decided to give it a try, stopping by the school even though she wasn't allowed on school property if she wasn't in classes. She looked at her watch again. 12:00. She sighed. She had slept until noon. She didn't feel well again, her stomach was doing flip- flops.  
  
She felt a vibration.  
  
Afraid her mother was up to something she reached into the pocket of the coat. She saw her mother's cell phone. Meredith gave a sigh of relief. She pressed the send button and donned her mother's voice as best she could.  
  
"Reyes?" She said, trying to sound like her mother.  
  
"You could have fooled the AD with that voice Meredith, but not me." The voice said, the same voice on the phone last night. "So where are you running to, you naughty, naughty girl?" 


	13. The Price of Truth

Chapter 13 - The Price of the Truth  
  
  
  
"I want answers." Meredith demanded. "I want to know why my father was shot, why William was taken and why I'm bleeding from two freaking holes in my wrists!"  
  
"I pormised you answers and I will stay true to that promise." The man on the other line said. "I want to give you them but you have a choice to make young Meredith. A choice for you alone. You must remain at home until I give you my present. You must remain at home, and cannot return to check your father nor can you say anything about what I am offering to anyone. I'll give you an hour to make your decision. Might as well have a shower. Your beautiful curls are getting dirty."  
  
"I want answers now."  
  
"Tsk, tsk, tsk Meredith. All good things to those who wait." He said. "And waiting is what you will do, unless you want to pull the offer right out from under your pretty little nose."  
  
Meredith heard the phone click. She turned onto her street and pulled up to her beautiful house, currently empty except for her cat. She locked the door and went into the house, ripping off her shoes angrily. She slumped onto the couch, not believing what she had to do for answers. This would be the longest hour of her life. She leaned back, her wrists almost bleeding through the bandages. She got up, deciding the least she could do was change the bandages. She climbed the stairs, tired and hungry having nothing but IV fluid in her. She came to the bathroom and collapsed onto the tiled floor. She took the first aid kit from the under the bathroom sink, thought about it, then looked under the bandages.  
  
The wounds were still bleeding underneath the stitches. She looked at the redness of the wounds. She would wash them along with her hair.  
  
The water running along the stitches hurt...a lot. Meredith was careful not to get any shampoo on them. She clenched her teeth, the pain moving up her arms. She had to leave the shower twice before finally her hair was clean along with the rest of her. She thought about it. Why was this so hard? Why was choosing between her father and answers so hard?  
  
"Because I'm becoming sympathetic." She said to herself, ignoring the phone ringing. She didn't want to talk to anyone. She heard the answering machine go and the beep come.  
  
"Meredith? Honey are you there? Sweetie please pick up." Meredith refused. SHe picked up the roll of bandages and bandages the wounds which had slowed but were still bleeding somehow through the stitches. She didn't care anymore, just as long as they didn't get in her way. The message ended, her mother probably pissed off from not knowing where Meredith was. She couldn't face her parents right now. Not yet.  
  
She was certain her mother wouldn't try for another while. She slumped on the couch, trying to fall asleep for a while, thinking too much to sleep, then eventually drifting off in a peaceful light nap, from exhaustion. Her wrists continued to bleed. She cried to herself a little, afraid for herself, for William, for what she was planning to do.  
  
The phone rang, awakening Meredith. Her darned curls in a wet mass from her shower. She reached her hand for the receiver. She felt her breath come out in shallow puffs, her throat dried.  
  
"Hello?" She said slowly.  
  
"Well Miss Doggett I've given you plenty of time."  
  
Meredith took a deep breath.  
  
"I want answers, but you have to swear to me nothing happens to my father, my mother, or anyone else I even remotely know."  
  
"I give you my word." The voice said. "But you must understand me Miss Dogget, this is the truth, nothing more nothing less."  
  
"I understand." Meredith was up and off the couch now, ready to go somewhere.  
  
"Put on your coat." The voice said. She went to get her jacket. She slipped on her boots, zipping up the knee high boots. Her senses sent prickles up her spine. She whipped around, the phone still by her ear. She felt the sensation of breathing on the back of her neck even though she couldn't see anyone. She glared.  
  
"I apologize..." Meredith felt a hand cover her mouth. She fought it, flipping the invisible figure over her head. She ran out the door, knowing there was only one place she could go, away.  
  
She ran left, as fast as her legs would carry her. She looked behind her, watching the figures dance and come out of her house. She hurried faster, beating herself up for not taking the car. She turned around, when she fell back, bashing into something, her legs giving out from under her.  
  
"Miss Doggett you are a hand full." Someone helped her up, her head spinning. She collapsed into that person his features unseable. Her eyes closed and with a sharp prick on her arm, she was lost. 


	14. A Vision

Chapter 14 - A Vision  
  
  
  
William awoke with a start. He wiped the sweat from his brow, and sat up slowly. His parents weren't in the room. He couldn't remember what he had been dreaming about, but perhaps he didn't want to. He looked at the clock on his bedside table. He calmed down a little, letting sleep come to him, but it didn't. He looked around his lonely bedroom. He picked up his hand, an IV permeantly stuck into it.  
  
He closed his eyes, the remnants of his dream being picked up, but he couldn't bring himself to remember. He grew angry at himself, then decided sleep was no longer an option, he'd done nothing but sleep for the past few days.  
  
Swinging his bare feet out from under the covers he felt them touch the cold floor. He tested his weight on them, making sure he could walk before he nearly killed himself. He landed on the floor, pulling his IV along with him. He didn't like being confined. He and Meredith were never good with hospitals...  
  
Meredith.  
  
The word hit him like a slap. He had loved her, not in the way his parents loved one another, in the way that he never wanted to lose her, but would never have a chance to be her lover either. He wanted to, and many times he had kicked himself for not taking the chance, but he went to a Catholic School and Meredith to a Public one, and their relationship never made it past people who saw eachother on holidays and sometimes on weekends.  
  
He remembered a summer when he and Meredith were four, Meredith's golden curls in corn rows from her family's trip to Florida earlier that summer, he in his bathing suit running up and down the beach, chasing anything that moved. Meredith was much to 'mature' for that. She began drawing in the sand. She had always been into the arts, dramatically making her parents bend to her will. She stopped that after age five.  
  
It was that summer when he and Meredith had their first kiss. He remembered it like it was a month ago, the images in his mind foggy from his sleep. He smiled to himself, sitting down in the chair, bored of the bed. He looked back on that summer.  
  
"Merry?" She and he had been alone in the woods. Meredith was a fast runner, jumping and leaping over everything. She still ran everyday, at 6 am before school and again at night, either to keep her figure near perfect as it was or just for fun. She had always been like that. She did everything for the stage. He remembered her first acting job. He had been invited to her school play where she was the Prince in Sleeping Beauty. He had kissed her in the clearing, the sun dancing on her rosy cheeks, the dandelion head rolling across that infamous clearing...  
  
Clearing.  
  
He suddenly opened his eyes. Had he fallen asleep, he didn't know. What he did know is that his mind had gone from the summer 14 years ago to the night according to Meredith happened a year ago. He remembered a light, a bright light, then comfort, nothing more then darkness. He opened his eyes and rolled them around his darkened room. He brought his mind to stillness.  
  
It was just a dream, he told himself, nothing more then a stupid dream.  
  
But what followed he knew was not a dream. It was a premenition, a vision of something to come. He blinked furiosly, trying to get the image out of his head. But he was haunted by it, he was frightened by it.  
  
He saw what looked like water, a pond or lake.  
  
And that's when he saw the angel with blond curls standing on it.  
  
Meredith.  
  
He blinked again. A second angel appeared.  
  
An angel with red hair.  
  
Him.  
  
He saw himself and the blond angel exchange glances, their eyes meeting. The blond haired one who bore an immediately yet very shocking resemblance to Meredith stood facing him, and he was astounded. He felt himself in an out of body experience, watching himself and the other angel look at one another. Suddenly, the "Meredith" one looked up. A light came from the heavens. She was engulfed in it, and floated endlessly up, her beautiful wings drifting behind her ordained with lillies. "William" angel watched. Meredith seemed unafraid by this. She suddenly began to glow, her beutiful skin taking on a golden and white burning glow. William was engulfed in it. And yet he could see. The lush forestry was growing, the beauty magnamous, the amazing light healing everything.  
  
Like the Christ.  
  
That was when the light ceased. The "Meredith" angel was gone, and the "William" angel was left.  
  
That was when he felt a hand touch his shoulder.  
  
"William?"  
  
He awoke with a start. He wasn't sweating. His mother looked at him.  
  
"Are you alright Will?" She asked him, brushing a lock of his read hair out of his face.  
  
"I'm okay." He said. "I was just getting up for a minute."  
  
His mother nodded.  
  
"Do you want anything?" She asked him.  
  
"No I'm okay." He said. His mother gave him a weak smile and pulled up the chair next to him.  
  
"Meredith hasn't been by today has she?" Dana asked him. He shook his head. He was beginning to see something about these dreams. He remembered the one he had before he left very well. He remembered the camera. He remembered going swimming. He remembered being woken up by Meredith getting a glass of water, then nothing. He guessed they would come back to him, but he didn't pressure them to return. He looked up at his mother.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Her mother can't find her." Dana said out loud. William sighed. Meredith wasn't the good little preppy girl she had been around his family. She had run away once, but that had been when she was seven and she never spoke of it to anyone but William.  
  
"She's probably just blowing off some steam." He said. "Have you called her friends' houses?"  
  
"Yeah, we have. They haven't heard from her since Formal. She ran off when she woke up and that was around, noonish?" She looked at her watch. William looked at the clock by the bedside table.  
  
"How's she been?"  
  
"Well, her father's here too. He was shot through the window of their home around 3:00 this morning. He's been out of surgery just as Meredith woke up. One of his lungs nearly collapsed." William didn't know what to say. "But Meredith came to and one thing lead to another and she drove off to somewhere." William discretely placed his hand over the IV.  
  
"When can I go home Mom?" He asked her.  
  
"Doctor says they want to do a few more tests. Hopefully tomorrow." She said. She gave another weak smile.  
  
"I love you William." She never would have admitted to that. He hugged he, sympathising for her. She kissed the top of his head. He hastilly sunk into her shoulder, resting his head on her collarbone. She softly shed a few tears on her son's oily mane, wiping them off her cheeks, making sure her fine layer of mascara wasn't running.  
  
William felt his heart pound inside his chest.  
  
"She'll be fine." He told himself.  
  
But something told him she had gone, gone to save them all. 


	15. Stranger With My Face

Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who sent in their reviews. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Thanks again! Oh yes and the chapter title doesn't belong to me its actually a book by Lois Dunkin or however you spell her name.  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 15 - Stranger With my Face  
  
  
  
Meredith remembered.  
  
She saw the path in the woods, long and hard in front of her. Her running shoes hit the ground sending soft puffs of dirt and soil floating into nothing. She looked behind her, making sure she was alone. She thrust herself behind a tree, her tiny pitiful sever-year-old lungs filled with nothing but grime. She coughed a little, her whole body weighing ten times more then it had when she had started running.  
  
But then she was continuing, from what she had no idea.  
  
But there was that gut wrenching feeling in her stomach, the pounding of her heart, the hairs on the back up her neck standing on end, the chills running up her spine. Was she running from a fear?  
  
Or just the unknown?  
  
As the young blond haired girl ran she heard it, the breathing from someone else, the footsteps. She turned, her perfect face catching the ray of sunlight as they fell from the heavens. She walked into a thicket, making less noise then she had. The woods behind her house was big, but by the age of six she could navigate herself almost professionally through them. She pressed her back against a tree and took a deep breath, releasing it slowly and surely. She turned her back on the tree and walked into the clearing behind her, the rays on sunlight streaming through the trees, the leaves on the ground making a soft crunching noise under her shoes. She looked back behind her, making sure no one could see her. She stood in the centre of the trees and knelt down on her knees, the wet ground soaking through her light pants.  
  
She closed her eyes, the wind rustling the leaves a little. She listened for any other sounds, the sounds of her own breathing, the sounds of the leaves break and fall to the ground, the sounds of her own silent tears from squeezing her eyes tightly. Now she knew, she had known all along what she had been running from. The little girl listened to the voices she could hear, the voices only she could hear, the voices that surrounded her in hate and death. She felt the cold prickle at her bare skin, the voices echoing around her once more. She felt the wind pick up, the leaves start to fly through the air. The speed of the wind forced the girl onto her feet, her hair whipping through the gale force winds. She knew not to be afraid, and she knew not to cry. She felt the cold around her, wrapping her in a freezing blanket. She clenched her teeth. She said clear as day, and realised in a midst of all the wind she had opened her eyes. She looked at the ground, the ground far beneath her. She was floating about a foot or so off the ground. She had no traction in the air, that was true, but the fact remained that she was off the ground, and the wind was keeping her in the air.  
  
Meredith snapped awake. She could hear water driping from the ceiling. Her head ached and a steady pain had errupted from her head. But the water sounds were gone. She pushed herself off the ground, her body a wreck of shivers and chattering and cold sweat. She felt something cold under her fingertips, colder then the tiles she was on. She picked it up, the round cylinder of a flashlight under her fingers. She flicked it on, the light in whatever type of room she was in was dimmed and almost ptich black. She flicked it on. It was one of the torch lights her parents used. She shone it around a little. The room was big. She could hear echoes from across the room. Thinking quickly she ran to a wall and tried to find something to hide behind.  
  
The lights burst on. Meredith closed her eyes, finding herself leaning against a large and vast glass tube. She flicked the flashlight off, trying to adjust her eyes to the bright light. She pressed herself against the glass, her heart pounding, her not wanting to be found. She could hear voices and footsteps into the room.  
  
"Number seven's been having some problems." She heard a male voice say and the footsteps being directed towards a undisclosed location on the opposite end of the room. She felt her heart pound. She kept listening. "She doesn't fall asleep at night. We cleaned her tank twice yesterday."  
  
"Give her some sedatives." She knew that voice. She looked througher memory, the voice somewhere inside she just didn't know where. She heard it, a faint and distant memory. Yes, he was the man on the phone, the man who had promised her answers.  
  
"Yes sir." The other man walked off, but she didn't hear the other set of footsteps, so she remained completely silent. She turned around, thinking that looking was better then being surprised.  
  
So she turned, the contents of the glass container becoming known to her. She widened her eyes, the visage in front of her hitting her in the chest, directly in the heart, she dropped the flashlight, the echoes trailing across the room. She walked back, her mouth opening to scream out.  
  
For staring back at her from within the tube was her own face. 


	16. Jason

Chapter 16 - Jason  
  
  
  
Meredith felt a hand clap over her mouth and she choked on her breath. She was pulled close to someone, so close she could feel the warm breath on her hair and the chest she was against rise and fall and pulse with each heart beat.  
  
"Stay quiet, I assure you she can't hurt you." The voice said, calming and inviting. Meredith breathed through her nose, the breaths coming in quickly and quietly. She heard footsteps come and go.  
  
"Sir?" She heard a voice question.  
  
"That will be all Donovan, leave." The man he called Donovan left as quickly and his footsteps still echoing in the vast room. Meredith's eyes fell on the stranger in the tube, floating n the water, her body covered in a simple white bathing suit.  
  
"She can breath Meredith do not worry yourself with small matters like that." The man said. Meredith was still uptight. She didn't relax her muscles until her mouth was released and she turned to face the man who made her that pomise. He was young, about early twenties, with dusty brown hair and puppy dog eyes. Her stood an inch or two higher then Meredith, his face of nothing but perfection. He reminded Meredith of William without the moppy locks and green eyes.  
  
"Who is she?" Meredith asked him. "Who are you? Where am I?"  
  
"One question at a time, Meredith." He said. "Her? She is simply another mistake I have been forced to live with."  
  
"She's a human being!"  
  
"She's a mistake Meredith, a mistake. Something you will never be."  
  
"Why me? Why me!" She demanded. He covered her mouth again.  
  
"Just be quiet alright, technically I have no power with who has access to these mistakes."  
  
"Who are you?" Meredith stepped back.  
  
"My name Meredith is Jason, but that is of no concern."  
  
"Why not, you seem to go to great lengths to bring me here, and without your name I just don't feel right."  
  
"Understandable." He walked towards the tank, the girl inside swimming up a ways, then dropping back down. Meredith watched her face, her body in the tank. It was like an out of body experience, watching herself swimming helplessly around. The proportions of the room sunk in. Seven tanks. Seven Merediths. Meredith gaped when she saw herself. Seven of them in tanks filled with water.  
  
"They are all mistakes, Meredith, all of them, for they are what you will never be. You are a weapon, a protector of the saviour Meredith, and no matter what you say or do you are everything William is not."  
  
"What is William?"  
  
Jason gave a cold laugh, his eyes suddenly changing from a beautiful brown to an icy blue.  
  
"William? He and you are basically brother and sister. I wouldn't be surprised if he had blond hair like yours."  
  
"He has red hair." She said. "But what do mean we are like brother and sister?"  
  
"Meredith, I need you to listen carefully because this is some heavy shit as you would refer to it. You and William are very special, very special indeed. I want you to know that. You are a protector, he is a saviour. Do you understand?"  
  
Meredith looked at him.  
  
"Vaguely." She walked to another tank, reaching out her hand, her fingers touching the smooth glass and running down the side. The girl inside came to the edge and followed Meredith's fingers. Jason came to Meredith's side.  
  
"You can breath underwater you know." He said. Meredith didn't take her eyes off herself. The girl behind the glass was like her reflection. She felt her gut twist into a knot. Why was this done? Why was this happening to her? Why?  
  
"I want to know how. I want to know everything that was hidden from me."  
  
Jason watched her turn her head, her curls falling just past her shoulders and her porcelin doll like face perfect underneath the mass of curls. Jason gave a weak smile, his eyes pulsating an icy blue still.  
  
"Come along, Angelic Protector, let me show you something very very amazing." 


	17. Let Me Show You Something

Chapter 17 - "Let Me Show You Something."  
  
  
  
Meredith looiked at his cold icy eyes, free from guilt, suffering, free from pain. He came to her, stood about a foot away from her, his feet in nothing but dress shoes, his business suit free from hairs and stains. He waved his hand. The world melted away, the vast room spreading around like a watercolour painting that had water spilt on it. Meredith looked around, the beautiful room replaced with white, the white of a hospital.  
  
"You know this place Meredith, I know you do." He said. "This is where your father's life stands, where you must find the barrier between life and or possible death."  
  
"How did you...?"  
  
"Go from my own house to the hospital? All in due time, my little angel." His names were annoying Meredith, but she said nothing. The nurses hadn't noticed the two of them suddenly appear in a hospital hallway. Meredith took a step and a cold rush fell through her body, the presence of another being within her. Voices clouded her mind and she turned around. A nurse had passed through her. She felt the voice cloud her mind, a migraine setting in from all the echoing.  
  
"You hear her thoughts." He said. It was true, Meredith now saw it, as if she had gone to medical school for years and years and yet never even seen a Medical School in her life. She pressed her fingers against her temples, the pain disappearring but as she was relieved she felt another presence and another as if her mind was opening up to the minds of others. "It will pass. Accept it Meredith, it is who you are to know the thoughts of others."  
  
Meredith looked at him. He walked through the crowd, now a patron in the hospital, an aristocrat. Meredith didn't like him, and yet she forced herself to, using and taking advantage of the opportunity to get answers. Another mind passed through her. She was growing to it now. She had never been invisible, well never intentionally, never been able to perform those things that she did. the things that she had just done.  
  
She followed her mentor, her trainer so to speak. The man who had offered her everything and she gave nothing in return. She walked behind him, trying to avoid people as they walked through her, as they gave her their thoughts.  
  
"Meredith look." He walked to the bedside, standing opposite the window at the right side of a hospital bed. Meredith walked to her father, her golden curls falling beutifically onto her shoulders, her angelic appearance striking Jason. He awoke himself from his vigil over the piece of heaven and spoke once more.  
  
"You have the power to save him." He said. "You and only you."  
  
Meredith looked at her father, his face covered in an oxygen mask, his eyes twitching under his eyelids, the bandage covering the top right of his chest. Meredith looked at Jason.  
  
"Place your hand over the wound Merry. Touch his blood, then give him the life that would be robbed of him."  
  
"Why was he shot?" Meredith asked.  
  
"He was shot Meredith because you are close to him, you are his daughter, his blood." Jason said. "And when he bleeds you bleed, when you bleed the world bleeds because you are the weapon Meredith. You are the key to survival. You are William's saviour."  
  
"What is William and what does he need saving from?" Meredith asked.  
  
"All good things to those who wait." He said. "Remember that as your first lesson Darling Meredith. Touch the wound with your hand."  
  
Meredith hesitated, then reached under the bandage. She felt the stitching and suddenly through her touch pain spread through her fingers to her wrists. They hadn't hurt, but sure enough blood had soaked through the once clean bandages. She looked at where she was postioned.  
  
"Concentrate Meredith you're not working hard enough." Meredith closed her eyes, not sure on what to concentrate on exactly just concentrating. A strange pain filled her chest and the pressure built up, and suddenly she opened her eyes, Jason still watching her, and her father gave a low moan. 


	18. Not Human

Chapter 18 - Not Human  
  
  
  
Meredith felt the wound slowly disappear under her finger tips, then suddenly nothing but smooth skin lay under her fingertips. She pulled off the pile of stitches, the heavy string keeping the wound together now useless. She watched her father drift back to sleep.  
  
"How did I...?" She pulled her hand out, then felt the burning in her wrists leave. She pulled off the bandages, her wrists perfect and free from the bleeding nail wounds they had been afflicted with earlier. She looked up at Jason, the man in front of her. He gave he a "I told you so look." Then walked around to Meredith's side. Carefully he pulled her away from the bedside.  
  
"I'm going to offer you something Meredith. I'm going to offer you something no one else in the world can offer you." Meredith didn't like it already. He walked out of the room, the world continuously moving around them and suddenly with a wave of his arm, the world stopped, and Meredith saw the flow of time become still and everything stop moving. She didn't feel right.  
  
"What the hell are you?" She asked him. He turned to face her, his face pale and perfect.  
  
"I am nothing but an experiment Meredith. Nothing but 50 years of government research put together to create the ultimate superhuman." He said this with no emotion. Meredith looked around. A ringing in her ears had started. "I can breath under water, speed myself up so time is standing still, I can change my appearance, I never age, I can speak through my mind, I can transport myself places in the blink of an eye. I can do things that no other human can do but am obsolite compared to you and William, which is why I'm offering you these answers. But these are secrets I need for you to keep to yourself. A breath of this to anyone and I destroy all evidence."  
  
Meredith was growing tired of Jason's long speeches. Men were like that, always needing an audience. She yielded to him, allowing herself to listen to him.  
  
"I've grown old in Washington Meredith, waiting for the two people who will someday save the world. About 20 years ago, a virus surfaced through that had the potential force to wipe out all life on Earth. The virus was extraterrestrial in origin, and was infected into your Godmaother's body."  
  
"What does this have to do with William and me."  
  
"The human race would be powerless against another attack from the alien race. That was when the government started doing tests with alien embryos stolen from crashed alien space crafts."  
  
"They cloned the embryos, making them perfect. 14 tests were done, 7 girls 7 boys. They are the mistakes you saw back at my house. But the only ones that did not fail were the original embryos. You and William."  
  
Meredith took a deep breath in, allowing her thoughts to come together.  
  
"Now what happened was William was released first into the world, but when the several assasinations were targetted upon him, we sent you in as a guardian, unknowingly we sealed our fate."  
  
"Sealed your fate as what?"  
  
"We brought the next apocalypse. The aliens will once again try and over run Earth. By bringing you back they will try and kill you and William off first, then..."  
  
"But if William and I are alien then why do they want to kill us?" Meredith asked.  
  
"The Syndicate saw to that. Upon crashing the embryos were damaged. The Syndicate, a secret government that was overrun years ago, recreated your bodily structures so that you and William had a human physiology and also had an immunity to the virus. With your healing abilities, you can wipe out the alien race simply by wishing it so." Jason finally looked back at her. Meredith looked up at the clock. It was still moving. So they were only moving really fast. Jason brought his hand down and time returned again.  
  
"What is my destiny? In your whole story you failed to answer that."  
  
"Your destiny, Meredith, is an angelic protector of the Saviour. You are a weapon, a tool against the darkness. You are a thing, Meredith, a thing created for the soul purpose of being used to save the Earth, then to die."  
  
"That's not true!"  
  
"How do you know that Meredith? How do you know that William and you aren't meant to save the world?"  
  
"Because its not possible."  
  
"Meredith 70 years ago the probability of going to the moon wasn't possible. Now we are planning to travel to Mars. It is possible, and all it takes is belief." Jason looked back into the hallway, the people still walking around aimlessly.  
  
Meredith remained silent, her soul wanting to scream out everything she had learned over the past day.  
  
"What is the real deal Jason?"  
  
"Your father was shot to hide something Meredith, something he couldn't predict." He said, looking blankly out at the hospital. Meredith walked to his side.  
  
"Hide what?"  
  
Jason sighed and looked at the floor.  
  
"A secret that the government has kept for more then a century now. I do not what they want, what their intentions are. The men who were after you the night I picked you up wanted you for a purpose that even I can't see." He pulled out a card. He scralled an address on it.  
  
"If you ever need me..."  
  
"Why do you do that?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Just blow me off. Leave me hanging. Look Jason, I appreciate this, but I need a little more to go on then the fact that I'm a weapon." She looked at his icy eyes. He bore pain now, his eyes glossy and sad. "Why are they so many questions right now? God damn it, why is this happening to me?"  
  
"Because you are the protector Meredith." He said. "This was all supposed to happen. Nothing happens spontaniously. Nothing happens by chance. It was fate that you an William were to be born. It was fate that William was taken until you were ready. It was fate that brought him back. Everything happens for a reason, and for you, it happens for a reason no one can assume. You must protect William now more thenm ever. They know he's back and they will kill anyone who stands in their way."  
  
"Who's they?"  
  
"They are the gatekeepers Meredith. They guard the doors, they call the shots. They murder, they hide it. They shot your father as a warning. They shot him to destroy something."  
  
Meredith nodded. Jason and her stoosd in silence. He handed her the business card. Meredith turned it over and over in her fingers. She heard his shoes echo down the halls, and even after that discussion was still confused. 


	19. Perfection Again

Note: Once again Moulin Rouge does not belong to me. Also, the character Claudia and book/movie Interview with the Vampire belong to Anne Rice. The lines to the song Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend belond to the movie Merelyn Monroe. Please R&R!  
  
  
  
Chapter 19 - Perfection Once More  
  
2 Days Later  
  
  
  
William walked backstage. He had no idea how he found himself here, but Monica had come backstage to help Meredith with the lacing on her corsette, still not believing she was promoting this play about prostitutes, and she had invited William along since John ahd some things to talk about with Dana and Fox. He stood outside the dressing room forbidden to go inside as there were suppposidely naked girls in there.  
  
"She's just finishing up." Monica said. William sighed, beating the bouquet of flowers he had brought into the creaky wall. Monica laughed a little.  
  
"So what's new with you William?"  
  
"Nothing much." He said. "I've got exams and Prom but I've gotten my application back. They accepted me at Law School."  
  
"Meredith's really keen on going to New York. They gave her an Arts Scholership there. Her father's a little mad but his unusually grumpy lately." Monica said. "Where did you apply?"  
  
"Actually she convinced me to apply at New York with her." He said. "I figured what the hell."  
  
"She'd like that." Monica said. The dressing room door opened and two blond girls walked, but Meredith did not follow. Monica took a peek in just as the door closed. She caught a quick glimpse of her daughter making a breif attempt at tightening the corsette.  
  
"Hang on." Monica said. William smiled. He took a peek in, Meredith struggling with the black lace of her diamond encrusted out fit. He smiled a little, making the doorway clear for another few girls in corsettes to come out. Meredith finally came.  
  
"Hey redhead." She said. He opened the door for her, surprised to see her new hair colour.  
  
"Hello other redhead." She gave a weak smile, a little embarrassed to be in fron of him in this outfit, afraid her face had too much make up or her body wasn't fitting properly in the corsette. She pulled the straps a little, her tiny figure looking almost perfect in the suit.  
  
"I swear this is the last time I wear one of these things." She vowed to whoever was listening.  
  
"It had better be." Her mother cam out of the dressing room and handed Meredith her Top Hat, encrusted with the same diamonds as the outfit. She looked back at William, fixing the top hat so it fit on her head beutifully, the black mixing with the new redness of her hair.  
  
"I'm going back to the seats. Your father should be done talking by now." Monica hugged her daughter. "Break a leg."  
  
"Thanks mom. I've got to fall 2 scenes from now." Meredith gave a silent laugh, and her mother retreated to the seats, her tiny black dress swishing at her legs.  
  
"Merry Christmas." WIlliam handed her the roses.  
  
"Thanks Will." She said. "I'm just happy you were here to see this."  
  
"Why would I miss it?"  
  
"You missed my performance of Interview With The Vampire."  
  
"Who were you in that?"  
  
"Claudia."  
  
"I thought you said Ophelia was the biggest role."  
  
"So far that year." SHe said. "Plus Claudia wasn't that major I mean she died in the movie and in the play."  
  
William walked up the stairs to the top of the stage with her. She slid onto the tiny swing, her bare legs on the smooth wood.  
  
"Good Luck." William watched her push off from the side, keeping her balance profeshionally.  
  
"Thanks." She replied. "Oh and Will?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"It's good that your here."  
  
William smiled to himself as he walked to his seat. He straightened his tie and smoothed his hair, then looked down at the stage.  
  
"How is she?" John asked him.  
  
"Amazing." William said. "Amazing. She'll be fine John."  
  
The lights dimmed throughout the theatre. William smiled.  
  
"She's amazing." He told himself again. He watched her swing lower to mid stage. He watched it spin in the air.  
  
"The French are glad to die for love."  
  
He remembered the movie. He saw it a while after he was born. Plus, after the past month Meredith had become obssessed with watching it. He knew every que.  
  
"They delight in fighting duels."  
  
William kept a close eye on the stage. Meredith had gotten them tickets fairly close to the stage. She spun around, her blue eyes masked with green contacts.  
  
"But I prefer a man who leaves..."  
  
He saw John Poe at the table at stage left as Meredith called it. Lucky Bastard, William said to himself. I have to get involved in some of these performances Meredith does.  
  
"And gives expensive jewels."  
  
The lights came on. Meredith flashed a smile at William, and then braced herself for the swing. SHe had fallen off a few hundred times in rehearsals.  
  
"Don't let me fall." She told herself, and the swing got momentum, and she floated over the dozens of actors on stage.  
  
"She's amazing." William smiled. 


	20. The Genesis Project

Chapter 20 - The Genesis Project  
  
  
  
The following scenes ended without a problem and Meredith walked backstage, wiping herself down with a towel, going to the dressing room to change into yet another corsette and a dress for after the half an hour intermission. Thank God for intermission! I can get out of these clothes and have a little time with William before I go on again. She sighed as she unbuttoned her long feathery pink skirt. She walked past John. He gave a small wave before heading back to make up. Meredith went into her change room and fixed her hair a little. She stripped herself and slid some loose pants over her body. She felt so much better. Those corsettes were giving her bruises. She slid a tank over her neked chest when there was a knock.  
  
"Come in!" She said. She had expected William. What she had got was a glimpse of something she had never wanted to see again.  
  
Herself.  
  
She stepped back, afraid she was hallucinating. She had a tendency to do that over the past week. Her heart raced.  
  
"Don't be afraid." Her double said. "I'm not here to hurt you."  
  
"Your real?" Meredith spat that out in surprise. "But you were locked up in the tanks. You were drugged, incapacitated."  
  
"I am who they call number seven." She said, walking into the room. "You could call us twins. Twin sisters actually."  
  
"Number Seven? Your the one they had to sedate."  
  
"Yes."  
  
Meredith noded.  
  
"So why are you here?"  
  
"I can't explain it really. Gut instinct I guess. But I do know that you are in danger."  
  
"Danger?" Meredith said.  
  
"Please sit."  
  
"Oh, do you want something to sit on?"  
  
"No thank you."  
  
So she is a polite twin sister. This could have mutual uses Meredith thought.  
  
"I am the seventh clone made of your original state. I was made and born but then stolen from my parents at the age of seven. I still remember when Darcy put me into the tank."  
  
"Darcy?"  
  
"Jason's mother. Both his mother and father were injected with chips that were the first Genesis Project."  
  
"Genesis Project?"  
  
"It was referred to as the Madonna Project, Lourdes Project, Gabriel's Message, several different things but the Genesis project was the original to all the Government tests. It involved a piece of a spacecraft called the Genesis chip. When injected into a human mind the human became invincible. They were faster, smarter, stronger, their neural impulses were multiplied by about 10,000."  
  
"What does this have to do with me?"  
  
"Well, Jason's father and mother were both injected with the chip. Their son whom Darcy, his mother, named after his dead father, continued in their place."  
  
"I thought the chip made you invincible?"  
  
"Yes but not immortal. It killed the host after 2 years of implantation. Jason sacrificed his chip to Darcy so their son could be born. But enough about that. After Darcy became the 'Reaper' of the Genesis chip, she made the project to create you a William and her son who was also enhanced in many ways, was the guardian of the project known as Genesis 2. They cloned the embryos that made you and WIlliam and eventually, the clones were found, as Jason said, mistakes."  
  
"WHat kind of mistakes?"  
  
"Certain things. One of the clones couldn't talk. The other was blind and didn't have eyes, minor problems."  
  
"What was your problem?"  
  
The other Meredith took a deep breath. She paced to the Window.  
  
"I had green eyes."  
  
"That's it?" Meredith whipped around. She looked at the clock. Intermission was almost over and she wasn't even ready to go on. Shit!  
  
"Hope you don't mind. I'm still listening." She went to her screen and pulled it over. The other Meredith walked to her.  
  
"Please, Meredith. You have to come with me." She said. Before Meredith could respond, she continued. "They found you, and they have created something that can kill you. You need to leave now."  
  
Meredith stopped for a moment. She sighed. Why was this happening to her? What did she do? She didn't deserve this? Did she?  
  
"But...the show. William. My parents. Who are they and why do they want to kill me?"  
  
"Because you are the only standing in way of them killing William."  
  
"STOP! I am not an angel or some protector okay! I am a normal girl and you are a hallucination. That's it! I feel like a psycho!"  
  
Her double walked to the door. She opened it.  
  
The six other Merediths walked in. 


	21. She is Safe...

Chapter 21 - "She is Safe..."  
  
  
  
William watched the stage. He hadn't seen Meredith all intermission. He slumped back into his seat, bored out his mind. He liked coming to see Meredith, but her much preferred her in exciting roles. She did play Joan of Arc in one her many acting experiences, but that was for her grade 8 thesis play on the history of France and she was only on for fifteen minutes doing a good job while everyone else was droning on and on with their French accents.  
  
But this show was worth it. In the last scene he had seen ever so sensible Meredith hump floors and dance on clouds with a moon that sung. He laughed. This really was a wacked up show. He thought of Meredith as Claudia in Interview with the Vampire. Sure. Now that would have been a show worth seeing. He gave another laugh and picked up the program. So this scene was called "A Darker Force". He flipped through the program booklet, looking through the many stills from the show. He gave a weak smile. There was Meredith, clad in nothing but a corsette and robe, lying in the arms of another man, John Poe or just Poe as she called him. He looked into her painted face, the unfamiliar red hair.  
  
"God I love you." He thought to himself, then stopped short. He thought about what he had just said, then took it back.  
  
"God I like you." Much better he thought. He couldn't bring himself to love Meredith. Not yet. He just wasn't ready for that. He closed the program and watched the stage.  
  
Still not curtain time he thought glumly. Usually he would have been more enthusiastic, but right now he was bored and leaned back in his very comfortable chair and closed his eyes for a minute. When he opened them a glaring light was in his eyes.  
  
He shook it off him. He looked up again. The light was gone. He sighed. I have got to catch up on my sleep, he thought deppressingly. He loosened his tie, the darn thing digging into his neck. He felt the fabric under his fingers. He pulled it off, his collar opening up and revealing his high risen collar bones. He felt the crucifix, the one he never took off and stupidly enough no one noticed, and pushed it under the collar of his shirt. His mother had bought him and Meredith matching ones, even though Meredith wasn't a strong Catholic, but she became one after that. Even though she went to a public highschool and was free from Uniforms, she attended church regularly and came to youth groups with William sometimes. Her parents had nothing to worry about. At least she wasn't honouring the devil.  
  
"My mother gave me and my sister one when I turned six for Christmas." They had celebrated Christmas at Meredith's house that year. She was in a skirt and turtle neck, perfect. William had come in his nicest clothes. He towered an inch higher then Meredith that year, but with Meredith's shoes on she was the same height.  
  
Dana clipped the cross around Meredith's neck, the gold of her cross going nicely with the gold on her skirt.  
  
The lights dimming woke him up. He sighed. Another hour and a half of Meredith macking on John Poe. He couldn't wait. He watched the large red curtain rise and the view of three places at once. The apartment with John at his table, the Elephant with Meredith on the ground, and the Gothic Tower. He set the program by his Mother's purse. A rise of clapping came from the audience. William joined in, his lack of movement annoying him. He watched the theatre.  
  
As the play progressed, the audience clapping at the end of each scene, Meredith remaining backstage until the end came.  
  
William watched the dance scene start. He had to admit the dancers in nothing but belly tops and short skirts were attractive, but the Meredith, blue with the lights on her pale skin came up, and the boom came from the back. William shot out his seat, looking around the back.  
  
"Shooter got away!" Fox and his mother were off and running after the man that shot.  
  
"No please...not her." William was on stage in an instant.  
  
Blood trickled from the open wound on Meredith's abdomen. William gaped at it. Her mother and father fought against the crowd. Monica was on stage holding her daughter's hand in a moment, checking for a pulse. It was slowed, almost not there.  
  
"No...no....no..." Monica began crying. William covered her wound with his coat. Meredith's eyes, green with contacts and her hair, red as the blood that rushed from her wounds. William stroked her cheek. A whisper came from her lips.  
  
"She....is....safe....."  
  
Then silence.  
  
William began to cry himself.  
  
His beautiful Meredith was dead. 


	22. William....

Chapter 22 - William...  
  
  
  
Meredith was screaming. She was dragged up a set of stairs, a loft above the room with the tanks below. The five other hers weren't letting her go. She ripped her arms from them, her ankles bleeding from being dragged up two sets of stairs.  
  
"Silence her." They whispered to one another. Meredith felt duct tape shoved over her mouth, and her muffled cries still came out. She was scared, yes for the first time in her life she was scared and she was truely fearful of her life.  
  
"What did they do?" She wondered. Fuck, she thought, they stole my stole my life. These jealous pieces of shit. Her hands were bound. Her feet were secured with weights.  
  
She was thrown at the end of the loft, the ground disappearring from under her feet and she fell forever, her feet striking the water first, then followed by the rest of her. She fell through the water, the visage of five other hers above her scaring her more then ever. She saw the disotrtedness through the water.  
  
"You can breath underwater."  
  
Jason's voice echoed through her mind, but for her there was nothing but water water. Her life flashed before her. She fell through the water, the weight on her feet striking the ground, then the pounding in her lungs, her body gasping for breath, the duct tape over her mouth preventing her breathing.  
  
"Help." She told herself, there was no one else who could hear her. She coughed, the duct tape losing its stickiness and her mouth free. She opened her mouth and upon reflex she felt water enter her mouth.  
  
"So this is what drowning feels like." She thought. "This is what death feels like." She watched the endless blue, forever wishing for something. Her body losing air, her lungs filled with water, her life going away.  
  
"William..."  
  
Then the blue darkened and suddenly the whole world was gone. There was the sounds of water and that black, then suddenly, nothing, and even the black was flooded with the nothingness.  
  
"Will?" His mother shook him awake. He was in the back of their car. He had fallen asleep. Beads of sweat were on his forehead. His mouth was dry. His mother brushed his hair out of his face, and opened the car door.  
  
"Are you okay?" She had asked him. Yes, mother, I'm fine, Meredith has died but I'm fine. He shook his head no.  
  
"I can't believe this. Everything was perfect. Everything was amazing. I was so happy...."  
  
In all his charted life, William was never known to cry after age ten, but the tears that came in that moment washed away it all, everything. He wanted it to end. In the past week of his return from wherever it was he went, he had only seen tradgedy. Then it was perfection. Meredith and he were going to New York, then to their jobs and then their life. He didn't want to live without her, and her didn't know if her could. But her final words echoed in his mind.  
  
"She is safe..."  
  
His mother hugged him close, the rise and fall of her no longer little boy's chest under hers. Dana felt safe again. She too had thought everything was perfect. She had been a fool to think so. She knew it was too good to be true. And suddenly now everything was changed.  
  
William stood up and out of the car. His mother reached for him. He walked past the theatre, past the police cars at the theatre and past it all. Dana wanted to follow him, but inside her, she knew William needed some time alone.  
  
William walked on forever it seemed, never lifting his eyes from the sidewalk once. But somehow his feet lead him where he wanted to be, and as he walked up the front porch steps to Meredith's house he sat there, unable to open the door. The cool night air gave him little comfort, for everything he knew died with blond curls. He curled his fingers around the crucifix given to him from Meredith's dressing room.  
  
"You're going to die William Scully starting with that red hair of yours!"  
  
"Oh yeah Blondie?"  
  
"I'm going to be an actress when I grow up."  
  
"William..."  
  
"There will always be mystery William."  
  
"It was all to protect you."  
  
"Let's go reap the whirlwind."  
  
"You're going to die William Scully starting..."  
  
"It watches."  
  
"You're going to Die William Scully..."  
  
"I love you WIlliam..."  
  
And now WIlliam was sure of what he should have said to Meredith before she died.  
  
Because she died not knowing the truth. 


	23. Green Eyes

Chapter 23 - Green Eyes  
  
  
  
William felt the cold pains in his chest. He sat there, at his kitchen table, starin across it, his eighteen year old green eyes begging a question that lingered in the corner of his mind.  
  
"Why would someone try and kill Meredith?"  
  
There were lot's of reasons he knew himself. But the one that bothered him most of all was the question that had an answer that was beyond his comprehension.  
  
What does she is safe mean?  
  
He sipped his coffee, keeping silent as his parents spoke with people on their cell phones.  
  
He pulled the paper from the opposite end of the table, looking at the front page. So Meredith had made the front page, and the headline scorched itself into William's mind. He glared at it, then moved his eyes to the picture of Meredith in her senior year, her beautiful curls pulled up and back, her eyes, blue as they ever were, and her face clear from blemishes that plagued the girls in his senior year.  
  
He ripped off the front page and grabbed scissors from the end of the table. Quickly and carefully he cut the picture out and saw at the remnants of the article. He crumpled it up. He wanted to shut that out. Meredith couldn't be dead, it just wasn't possible. She had so much to do with her life.  
  
But most of all he missed her. I wouldn't matter if she had been an honour student. He would have still loved her the way he did that day. He picked up the crumpled newspaper, and unfolded it, the space where the picture of Meredith had been lay open to the hardwood table underneath it. He looked at the article and skimmed over it, picking out the finer points. "A blossoming career in acting", "Friend to everyone", "Daughter of FBI Agents Monica Reyes and John Doggett", and "Killed almost instantly".  
  
William took it around the hall and down to the basement. He pinned the article to his wall and stuck Meredith's picture back where it belonged. He looked at his wall, filled with icons and rap stars, then he ran and jumped onto his bed, the mattress bouncing up and down until it finally stopped. He leaned into the pillows, the fluffy masses supporting his head.  
  
"William..."  
  
He heard the whisper from his thoughts. He must have dozed off he thought, and yet it had seemed so close. He opened his eyes. Meredith looked at him, her cold dead eyes piercing through him.  
  
Her cold dead green eyes.  
  
He shot up in bed.  
  
Green eyes. That was wrong. Maybe he imagined it, I mean he was dreaming right. He lay back. He allowed himself to close his eyes.  
  
"Come on Meredith." He thought. "Show me again. SHow me what I missed."  
  
Meredith floated back.  
  
Her green eyes followed over his body. He sat up, his finger on the pupil. SHe closed her eye, the pain in her eye from his finger. He looked.  
  
No contact.  
  
He snapped awake now. He walked to the stairs and up them. His parents were still in the living room, talking on their phones. He slipped into their home office, even though he knew the information was confidential. He went to his mom's desk. She got all the mail from the coroner's reports and crap. He looked through her filing cabinets, watching the door as he checked each name from Bobbina, Lucille to Doherty, Thomas. He didn't find the name Doggett anywhere even though he was sure Monica had sent it to her after getting it from the coroner. He looked on her desk.  
  
Doggett, Meredith.  
  
He ripped it open, flipping through the many pages of pictures and information. He reached it. The personal identification sheet.  
  
Full Name: Meredith Angela-Marie Doggett  
  
Birthdate: October 6, 2002  
  
Age: 17  
  
Hair Colour: Blond  
  
Eye Colour: Green  
  
"Mom!" He called.  
  
"Hang on. Yes Will?"  
  
"Do they remove contact lenses when they do an autopsy?"  
  
"Yes William." She went back to her phone conversation.  
  
William now began to doubt whether he was awake or not.  
  
And if Meredith was really dead. 


	24. Freedom or Death

Chapter 24 - Freedom or Death  
  
  
  
It was the burning ache that she woke up to. Her head screamed fire as she sunk lower into the pillow the nuzzled against her cheek. Her face twisted into an image of pain and she could feel the heat from the comforter she was covered by.  
  
Meredith's eyes snapped open suddenly and she came to terms with a hacking cough. Water filled her mouth and ran a little onto her hand. She gave one last cough, then debated her predicament.  
  
She had to admit it was better then the last time she had lost consciousness and woke up. She wasn't on a floor or in a hospital bed. She peeled the heavy comforter off her body, carefully dressed in silk pyjamas. Someone had changed her. SHe coughed again, receiving another mouthful of water. She relaxed a little, leaning back on the mohogany head board of the bed she had been put in while she was unconscious.  
  
But still, the events leading up to her passing out were a blur. She remembered the play, however long ago it was, the story as told by her *twin sister* Number 7. She shook off the remembrance of being thrown in the tank. As she remembered, she heard the click of a door, and silent footsteps on the hardwood floor.  
  
"Awake at last." She opened her eyes, another coughing attack getting to her, and there was Jason. Oh God, the first person I see. Joy.  
  
"Just lay back Meredith your lungs are filled with water." He said. Meredith didn't want to. She defiantly sat up, and was wrecked with coughing spasms. She kicked the rest of the blankets off. Jason came and sat on her bedside. He handed her the newspaper and a look of horror came onto Meredith's face. Pictures of her, memories covered the front page.  
  
"What? I'm not dead though?" It all started to make sense. She read through a little of the article.  
  
"They found you, and they have created something that can kill you..."  
  
Meredith couldn't believe it.  
  
"They weren't stealing my life they were saving me!" She shouted out in surprise, triggering another coughing attack. She held her hand over her mouth and dropped the paper.  
  
"But...my family, they think I'm dead."  
  
Jason smiled a little.  
  
"As long as they think your dead Meredith, William is safe."  
  
"How's that? I thought I was supposed to be protecting him?"  
  
"Yes, well your the weapon. Its like trying to run a car without the battery. Your the battery. Without you, William isn't targetted."  
  
"But someone's going to find out I'm not dead."  
  
"No, everyone will suspect you are dead."  
  
"What makes you so certain?" Her voice was getting worse.  
  
"These are people you don't fuck with Meredith." Jason said. "That was why they escaped, the numbers. They came after you. That was why I let them go. They made you dead. Your parents will never find the shooter, no matter how much forensics they use. You're a dead girl Meredith. A dead free girl."  
  
"Free? If what your saying is true I go anywhere and I'm dead."  
  
"True, which is why I have another offer for you."  
  
"What is it with you and all these offers?"  
  
"You stay here with me and help me run the project, and William is safe."  
  
Meredith couldn't believe this. In what had to be twenty- four hours she had been kidnapped, nearly drowned, and now had to give up her family and her life to a guy she had just met?  
  
"I'll give you the day to think about it." He said. "Your free to go anywhere you want to. There are clean clothes in the cupboard. He pointed towards a closet on the far wall. Meredith didn't talk. She remained silent on the bed, a rumple of blankets at her feet. "And there is Advil in the bathroom." Meredith looked back at the paper.  
  
So now came the choice only she could make.  
  
Death...  
  
Or freedom.  
  
But right now she couldn't tell which was worse. 


	25. Looking for a Reason

Chapter 25 - Looking for a Reason  
  
  
  
William stood there, transfixed. The Medical Director had let him in only because his mother was a doctor. He had snapped on a pair of latex gloves and pulled apart the cold, dead, limp eyelid of who everyone was to think was Meredith.  
  
Green eyes stared back at him.  
  
The medical examiner, a man about 50 with white hair and slowly balding and his name tag reading Dr Powell.  
  
"Did you find what you were looking for?" He asked William. William looked at his mother behind him.  
  
"Did you remove any contact lenses on her?" William asked. The doctor shook his head.  
  
"The only thing that I could tell wasn't natural was her hair colour." He said. "But no, there were no contact lenses or anything like that."  
  
William looked back at his mother who came forward with a glove on. She too looked at the eyes.  
  
"William you're positive Meredith's eyes aren't green?"  
  
"Yes mother." He had assured his mother several times on the way over. She still wasn't sure he wasn't positive. "I am sure of it. Meredith had crystal blue eyes."  
  
"There has to be some mistake." Dr Powell said. "This girl came in the same way she is now, minus the insition but I didn't remove any eye contacts or found anything in her system that could have added to the distortion of colour."  
  
"Is there anything that could cause crystal blue to turn to emerald green?" Dana asked him.  
  
"Its possible, but I don't think theatre companies would have that on their hands just yet."  
  
"I see." Dana looked back at her son. As much as she wished she could just admit that this wasn't Meredith, everything else pointed to the fact that it was.  
  
It was just those eyes. Those cold dead green eyes.  
  
William was silently transfixed on the beautific masses that were whoever this was eyes. He was astounded by them, their green colour as pure and perfect as the real Meredith's blue eyes. He wanted so much for proof of this to add to the possible discovering of Meredith, the true Meredith. He pulled off his gloves and walked back. His mother followed after a word with the doctor.  
  
"He says that some eyedrops can account for the discolouration of eyes." Dana said. WIlliam shook his head.  
  
"How do you go from perfect crystal blue eyes one day to deep green at the end of the day. I saw her fixing her contact before the show mom. She was wearing contacts."  
  
"William, I know how much you miss Meredith. The fact is that she's gone..."  
  
"She's not gone Mom!" William shouted at his mother. He was angry at this. His mother, a medical doctor couldn't see that this wasn't Meredith. It looked like Meredith, it acted like Meredith, it sounded like Meredith. But somewhere behind the pulsing green eyes and blond curls, she just wasn't Meredith.  
  
"I'm sorry Mom." He murmurred. "I'm sorry."  
  
"Its okay William." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know how close you two were. I want her back as much as you do sweet heart." She stroked his hair a little. "But she's gone."  
  
"That's where your wrong mom." He said. "If they have the technology to change her eye colour they have the technology to do other stuff. This may be just a well planned hoax."  
  
"You sound so much like your father WIll." She replied. "Constantly searching for the truth. Your father's search ended when he found the answers, but Will those answers take you on a roller coaster ride from hell. Your father was lucky Will."  
  
"How was he lucky mom? He has nothing to show for his quest."  
  
Dana sighed. She looked back at her son's face.  
  
"That's not true Will." She admitted. "He has so much that he had to offer, that he got in return for what he gave. Look at his life. He's a professor, he's a husband, he's a father..."  
  
"But look at it like this. He never found the truth. He never found the answers that he gave his life to finding. He never got that prize he was looking for."  
  
"No William, that's not true." William coughed a sarcastic "Yeah Right". Dana looked at the floor.  
  
"The truth is William, your father devoted his whole life to the truth. But what if the truth is something that can't be found, that doesn't want to be found, and once you do find it, you realize you weren't really looking for the truth. You were just looking for a reason."  
  
"Then what's my reason?"  
  
"The same as it always was." Dana said. "Meredith." 


	26. We'll Meet in the Stars

Chapter 26 - "We'll Meet in the Stars  
  
  
  
Meredith looked across the land. She had climbed out her window and hoisted herself onto the roof using one of the many stone gargoyles surrounding the house. Geez, this guy is rich. She looked across his property, expecting herself at the beginning to find herself in Washington on a small piece of property. The roof prooved otherwise, and she realised that Jason was living on some of the best pieces of land ever. Neither times when she had been brought here she was conscious, and she tried to map a way back to Washington but found herself back where she had started, the wind blowing through her locks of blond unwashed hair, her only friend the sounds of the crickets starting to sing the the high grass.  
  
As she sat there, the music of the crickets sending her into a dreamless world, she started thinking again. Her mind was back where it had started. This life at Jason's, or the life you left behind or as Jason had put it so perfectly, freedom or death. Meredith chewed on a lock of hair, her stomach empty. She hadn't been inside all day. She shivered a little, the wind becoming as sharp and as cold as Jason's words to her.  
  
"Advantages of living with Jason." She thought to herself. "I get a bigger room then I had. 2, I'm free to do whatever I want in this place. Disadvantages: Mom, Dad, Dana, Fox, William, no wait..." She thought about that one. If what Jason said was true, either way William and her would never be together.  
  
She fingered the stone statue of the gargoyle nervously, pulling the light blanket over her bare arms. She had taken that from the room, but didn't allow herself to change, even though the closet, just as Jason had assured her was full of clothes. She had checked, and the only thing she didn't see in there was shoes, but she found them in a closet all their own by the bathroom which was bigger then her parent's room at home. She thought silently to herself once more, pissed because she wanted to make the right decision, not one that would affect her for ther rest of her life, however long that would be.  
  
"Come what may..." She sung to herself. Lord she loved that song. She remembered dress rehearsal that night when she had thought about William for the first time since the memorial service. She smiled to herself. Was William thinking about her too? No, he wouldn't. He'd accept her death. That was the way William was, too much like his mother, and still a lot like his father.  
  
She thought about William a moment more, even his mind presence comforting her. She wiped a silver tear from her eye as the sunset painted the sky into watercolour hues of pink, purple, and orange. She made herself think of him, his green eyes hidden behind his often messy red hair. She remembered him coming back to her. She thought about her play, that moment when everything was perfect for her. She was acting, he was coming to New York with her, she would have her William forever. Then the tables turned again. She was left with nothing but Jason.  
  
She saw the moon slowly appear from the sky, the star's twinkle beautifully on top of the velvet sky. She listened to her father's words in her head. He had taken her onto the dock one of the first summer's at the cabin, when she and WIlliam found comfort in bothering one another. She remembered her father pointing at the sky, showing her the constellations.  
  
"See Mere, that's the great bear."  
  
"How did God get a bear in the sky daddy?"  
  
"He put it there." John laughed in spite of his daughter's joke.  
  
"And did he put the other stars there too?"  
  
"He did that too Mere." He looked over at his daughter's face, the perfection of it. With the loss of his first son he remembered what it was like to be a father.  
  
"Then why don't they leave?"  
  
Meredith closed her eyes and two tears gently fell down her cheeks and fell onto the gargoyle she was lying on. She curled her knees to her chin. She wiped the tears off her face, running her fingers over her small scratches and feeling their rough surface and remembering back again.  
  
"The stars are like heaven sweetie. They can't leave."  
  
"Where's heaven Daddy? Auntie Dana says its where we go when we die."  
  
"Some people would say that Mere." John said. He looked back at his daughter. Her eyes were transfixed on the sky, their blue masses reflecting the stars in their bright pupils.  
  
"Then we'll meet eachother daddy, we'll meet there when we die?"  
  
"That's right Mere. We'll meet in the stars."  
  
"We'll meet in the stars." Meredith said to herself. She took one last look at the sky, its perfection too great for her, and she slowly saw what she had to do.  
  
She had made her decision. 


	27. A Sighting

Chapter 27 - A Sighting  
  
  
  
William walked through the packed theatre. It was tradition for his parents to go to a live play for their aniversary. His mother said it opened doors to William's artistic ability. William preferred to think going to the theatre would someday kill him, then his parents would stop going there for their aniversary. This time they were going to some opera.  
  
But it wasn't just the fact that he was humouring them anymore. Everytime he even came past the theatre he felt closer to Meredith, felt closer to what was taken from him. He wanted the investigation to take in the new evidence that it wasn't Meredith who was killed. He wanted Meredith back.  
  
As he took his seat in the crouded auditorium, he felt an emptiness rise into his chest and he swallowed the lump in his throat. He looked at the stage from the balcony they had bought out, taking up all the seats and looked directly over the stage. His mother and father were in their seats talking quietly. He looked in the seat to his left. Meredith was usually there beside him or on stage. He thought about his life as it looked. He had received his acceptance and was positive about going to New York now. He had started drawing again. That was odd. He hadn't drawn since grade 10 art class, but had given it up when he was sure he was becoming a doctor. He reached into his coat pocket and grabbed his wallet, flipping through an assortment of bills and then found his collection of pictures. He looked at the one from the church of him and his parents, then several of Meredith as a little girl. He looked at the curtain and silence came as the curtain rose and the nuisance of listening to people sing about how they have given up love start.  
  
He looked across the dimly lit balconies. He caught sight of several elderly people sitting in chairs. William looked at one of the more expensive balconies and caught sight of a young gentleman with dusty brown hair and a black suit seated next to a petite blond girl wearing a midnight blue dress. Her blond curls pulled high and beautiful with glitter and jewels.  
  
Like Meredith.  
  
William squinted harder, the dim light making it hard to see. Yes it was true the girl had the same blond curls and facial structure but was it really Meredith? He dismissed the thoughts.  
  
No, William, its not Meredith. Your seeing what you want to. He wanted so much to shout across the theatre to her, just shout to the woman he thought was Meredith. He couldn't believe it.  
  
The girl looked away from the stage. She looked at the gentleman beside her and said something to him, then dismissed herself, straightening her skirt with her gloved hands and leaving the balcony. William turned to his parents. They were indulging themselves in the opera.  
  
"Excuse me for a moment." He whispered. They looked at him, wondering where he was going. "I'm just going to get some air."  
  
They nodded. He knew his father would have loved to join him. Fox was a fan of Dana, but when it came to Opera, Fox would have loved to kill himself. He was usually too indulged in William's mother then the opera itself.  
  
William closed the door to the balcony and he walked through the halls. He couldn't hear anyone else. He walked cautiously to the stairs and looked down the other hall. No one was there. He couldn't believe what he was doing. He was supposed to be celebrating with his parents, not going on wild going on wild goose chases over a girl who was supposed to be dead.  
  
He looked down the starcase, the beautiful mohogany rail and the red carpetted steps. He walked down them, the foyer empty. He listened to the echoe of his feet through the room. He looked at the huge stained glass ceiling above him. The light coming in flooded the beautiful room and made William feel better about his life. He walked to the landing and went to the doors to the outside world. He watched the cars go by and by and wished the world would stop for a moment, giving him a chance to think. He needed a moment. He wanted that moment to be with Meredith, no needed to be with Meredith just once more.  
  
He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the glass door, his eighteen year old visage in the mirrored pane of glass. He was about to walk outside when he heard footsteps.  
  
"Hello William." A silent and quiet voice said from the stairs. He turned slowly around and drank in the one person he needed to be with.  
  
God had heard his wish.  
  
And his blond haired Meredith stood alive and well at the top of the stairs. 


	28. What Dreams May Come

Chapter 28 - What Dreams May Come  
  
  
  
"It can't be..." William said to himself. There was no way in hell this was real. And yet now, as Meredith stood at the top of the staircase facing him, as she began to walk towards him.  
  
There was no way in hell this was real.  
  
William closed his eyes and blinked, trying to wake up from whatever dream he was living in. He discretely pinched himself trying to wake himself up. But every single time he opened his eyes there was Meredith, a little closer then before.  
  
"It's okay William." She said, taking another step down the stairs. "It's just me."  
  
"The living you." He said. Meredith smiled.  
  
"You uh, heard about my recent death did you?"  
  
"Heard about it? Meredith I was there when you were shot!"  
  
"Look WIlliam I know how strange this is. Don't you think I feel weird walking around in an opera house full of people who have directed me on stage?"  
  
"Yeah, I was kind of wondering how nobody recognized you."  
  
"It's hard to explain." She said. "Very hard."  
  
"As hard to explain as how they found your corpse and several hundred people saw you get shot and die?"  
  
"Probably, yeah."  
  
William sighed. He looked up at Meredith, his crystal blue eyes telling a story of a person who had lost everything she knew and held dear. She smiled faintly at him.  
  
"Truth is William, this is the hardest moment of my life. 1 week ago everything was perfect for and the suddenly, more suddenly then ever, everything was taken away from me. Do you have any idea how that feels?"  
  
"Meredith stop thinking I don't know how that feels!" William shouted at her for possibly the first time in his life. "When I got back from wherever I was taken I had nothing! WHy is everything about you! You! You! You!"  
  
Meredith opened her mouth wide at William.  
  
"So now you're calling me selfish?" She ripped off her gloves, enough of being a lady. "I was right to leave you William Scully. I don't even know why I came here."  
  
"Leave me! WHat are you talking about now Meredith?"  
  
"William I..." Meredith couldn't finish her sentence. How was she going to explain this to him? "I kind of promised I'd never see you or my family again."  
  
William looked at her through she was under suspician of murder instead of his best friend. Meredith continued.  
  
"He swore to me that you were going to be killed if I didn't stay with him."  
  
"Who?" He asked her. "That guy you were with?"  
  
"Yeah. He sword me to secrecy but I had to tell you." She said. "I knew you'd be here because its your parents aniversary."  
  
"It's kind of hard to trust someone when they tell away a secret they were supposed to keep."  
  
Meredith turned quickly and William looked over her head.  
  
"Wouldn't you say so Miss Doggett?" Jason was coming down the stairs. 


	29. Lost and Found

"Surely somewhere lies "the answer", the answer to why I was born". That is what all people wish for, facing the dreary dream they can't let go of. Here we go! Go! I'll keep on running! I won't be stopped by anyone. I want to Give a Reason for life to my future self."  
  
Megumi Hayashibara  
  
Give a Reason  
  
  
  
Chapter 29 - Lost and Found  
  
  
  
"You know its really interesting how a 17 year old girl would be interested in opera, despite her history as an actress." Jason stayed on the stairs. "Coincidentally the boy of her dreams is there too. How are you William? Still alive I see."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean Jason?" Meredith snapped at him. He gave a cruel and weak laugh.  
  
"I warned you Meredith." He said. "Chances are they already know he's alive. I'd watch your back William."  
  
"Who is this guy Meredith?" William asked her. Meredith sighed.  
  
"Jason who know William, William may I introduce the biggest royal asshole I have ever met."  
  
"Oh Meredith I offered you everything..."  
  
:"Except what I wanted."  
  
"Who said this was about anything you want?"  
  
Anger started to build in Meredith's eyes. She looked back at William, and whispered under her breath.  
  
"Let's get out of here."  
  
William nodded. They turned to the door. Jason stood there.  
  
"Meredith I'm only looking out for you."  
  
Meredith tossed the tiny pieces of fallen over her shoulder defiantly.  
  
"Why protect me if I'm just a thing?" She said, and moved past him and pushed open the door.  
  
"Remember Meredith what I said." He mentioned. Meredith glared at him.  
  
"You're not my father."  
  
"Neither is John." Meredith shot him a sharp glance, colder then ice itself. Jason nodded at her, then sort of disappearred. William watched as Jason walked away. Meredith looked through him, before she collapsed into the door frame and buried her head into her arm. William came to her side, feeling her quivering back under his hand.  
  
"It'sall my fault." She said. William hugged her, Meredith burying her head into his shoulder like a little girl.  
  
"Will?" His parents came into the foyer. William put a finger to his lips as he faced them, the blond Mereidth with her back to them She released William and turned again, her eyes make up runny. But it didn't distort her image enough to stop the chaos that followed.  
  
"Meredith?" 


	30. My Light in the Sky

Note: I hope you saw the ending of this chapter coming! I'm not revealing anything and don't worry this will not escalate into anything. The line was very wrongly stolen from the X- files (shame on me) but it just adds something. Thank you for those who have reviewed!  
  
  
  
Chapter 30 - My Light in the Sky  
  
  
  
"It's like she isn't even my daughter anymore." Monica said to Dana that night on the phone. The two women kept in touch frequently. Monica washed the table again and again, unaware of her repetition. She stood up finally, straightening her back and feeling it crack a little. She felt a lot better being verticle once more.  
  
"Monica I know it's strange." Dana said in a comforting tone. "I felt the same way when William came back."  
  
"We hadn't watched William die Dana! We had woken up to Meredith running back to the cabin shouting out that WIlliam was gone and something about a camera remember? We hadn't seen a corpse had we?" Monica took some deep breaths in. "It's just that I watched her die Dana. I watched her die..." Monica sort of trailed off. Dana empathized on her friend.  
  
"I know how you feel okay Monica? It's gonna be okay."  
  
"It's just strange hearing her again." Monica admitted. "It's too strange." She slumped down in the kitchen chair.  
  
"Well I'll come by okay? William's doing everything but pissing himself to see Meredith and Mul...Fox has gone to one of his convention things." Even as a married couple the two of them still referred to one another as Scully and Mulder.  
  
"That'd be great. Meredith is...somewhere around here but it's a big house so who knows. Mere?!" SHe didn't hear anything. "At least I think she's here." She looked down the hall. Meredith's hat, coat and shoes were all there. She sighed.  
  
"Must be in that damned attic." She replied. Dana gave a nod and looked around her apartment. WIlliam was already getting his coat on and currently tying his shoes.  
  
"See you in a minute Monica." Dana said. She waited for a "Good-Bye!" from Monica and then went to the door.  
  
Monic apressed the off button on the phone. She went about her business in the kitchen.  
  
Meredith pressed herself against the wall. SHe didn't like listening in on her mother's phone conversations but in this case it was a must. She closed her eyes, holding back on crying. Dear God Meredith, she thought angrily, you are a baby. Her lip quivered a little and she silently walked upstairs to her room.  
  
Meredith's room was the one at the end of the hall. She had painted it earlier that year, complete with clouds and moons and suns and stars. William would have helped her, but unfortunetly he was still "missing" then. She walked to the attic stairs, adorned with lights and streamed and tinsel. She climber up them, somberly and silently, sniffling a little as she climbed then opened the door to her "tower" room. She didn't curl up on the happy face carpet like she had when she was four. Instead she went to the window, high above the street and popped open the latch and pushed herself through.  
  
The roof had been her favourite place to think since she could climb. Her parents had tried to stop her, but nothing stopped Meredith from climbing out there and sitting above the world, looking at the stars and beyond and wishing she could just fly away from everything.  
  
The sun was slowly setting in the west, and Meredith remembered back to the night on Jason's roof. True, their roof was not as extravagent as his but she tried to think of what he was doing now. She closed her eyes and wiped off the excess tears and put her mind in a state of calm. She had done yoga to curvwe out her body more. It was impulse to fold her legs and as she did she felt better, being away from everyone.  
  
"It's like she's not even my daughter anymore..."  
  
She wanted to shut out what her mother had said. SHe just wanted to make it all go away. She had caused all this grief. She opened her eyes, the world as if stopped around her. She didn't care anymore as the world fell silent, and the life she knew was just somewhere else.  
  
"Hey blondie." William's head came out of the window and he scaled the roof to Meredith's sitting place. She gave a weak smile and looked at him.  
  
"You know what William?"  
  
"What?" He asked her as he sat next to her.  
  
"I never stopped believing..." She began. He looked at her. The words surprised him.  
  
"That I'd see you again." She didn't stop. "And I felt you every moment I was away, and I wanted more then anything to see you again. And you want to know something? I thought of all people I'd think of my parents but when I thought about it, you were the only person I thought of."  
  
"You were my constant WIlliam Scully." She looked at him, the stars seemingly motionless in her eyes. "You were my light in the sky. And I followed it back to you again." 


	31. A Conspiracy With God and Santa

Chapter 31 - A Conspiracy With God and Santa  
  
  
  
"Catherine! Please get into bed now!" Meredith called up the stairs. She started to walk up the stairs. She had to get out of her house, and that was why a 17 year old girl was babysitting. She walked up the stairs and eventually made it into the room of the 5 year old. Her blankets were rumpled at the base of the bed and the young girl was nowhere to be seen.  
  
"Catherine? You're mother is going to be really mad!" She smiled a little smile and whipped around to the walk in closet. She pulled the door open and the girl was there, hidden within the swirling darkness.  
  
"Awwww. Merry please just one more hours?" Meredith smiled. She loved this kid, envying her at the same time. This girl had a dad who was a pilot and a mother who did some acting at the theatre where Meredith worked. At least she had parents with remotely normal jobs. Meredith had two parents who were FBI agents and everytime they worked on a case she either had to come with them or stayed with a friend until she turned fifteen.  
  
"No more hours Catherine now where's your brother?"  
  
"BOO!" Asher jumped out from behind. Meredith jumped around, seeing him coming suddenly. Her mind was going wacky. She pressed her temples.  
  
"Asher and Catherine please get into bed." She begged. The two children jumped on Catherine's bed. She was extremely jealous. Both kids had ginger hair, straight ginger hair. She gave another little smile.  
  
"Guys, please." She begged again. They shook their heads no.  
  
"Well then I guess I'll just have to tell your parents not to let me bring my movies tomorrow." That got the kids in their respectable rooms. Asher was in bed in an instant, Catherine sat on her bed.  
  
"Meredith?"  
  
"Yes." Meredith said and sat on the bed with the little 5 year old and looked at her, the girl's eyes looking straight through her.  
  
"What's it like to die?" Meredith gave a weak laugh.  
  
"You heard about that too huh?" She said. The girl nodded widely. Meredith smiled. "Well I wasn't really dead. It's like I went on vacation." The girl obviously wanted a good story. Meredith smiled and then started a huge lie. "Well, I met God and he said that if Catherine doesn't start getting to bed on time he'll tell Santa not to bring her presents anymore!" Catherine turned pale. SHe looked at Meredith.  
  
"God really said that?"  
  
"Something like that." She nodded. The girl pulled the covers up and Meredith helped tuck the girl in. Meredith flicked the lights off again. She watched as the girl's eyes closed.  
  
"Night Catherine." She said. The girl's breathing became deep.  
  
"Night." She murmurred under her breath. She walked back down the stair. Good, she thought. All the good horror movies on satellite are on now. It was her secret passion, horror movies.  
  
She slumped on the couch and looked at the phone and contemplated calling WIlliam to come over. The cool thing about Catherine and Asher's parents is they respected her friends and allowed her to have a few friends over while she babysat. Plus they had the best food, over 800 channels and let's not forget the huge trampoline and indoor swimming pool.  
  
She grabbed the phone. She contemplated once more.  
  
Then she started dialing. 


	32. Followers

Chapter 32 - Followers  
  
  
  
"Shit Mere! How do you get the good places to babysit?" Meredith took off her coat and hung it in the closet neatly.  
  
"Keep your voice down Will the kids are in bed." She scolded him. "And besides, if we want them asleep while Hannibal's on we need to keep it quiet."  
  
"Hannibal Mere?" She knew WIlliam hated thriller movies and horrors. She smiled weakly.  
  
"The graphics suck now WIll just give in. It's a good old movie." William sighed. She smiled.  
  
"Or we could just find some good chick flick to watch." She gave a tiny laugh. Will looked at her. Lord he had missed her.  
  
"Whatever Mere." He said. She smiled.  
  
"So when are their parents going to be home?" He asked her as she lead him into the huge entertainment room complete with Tv and and every gaming system imaginable.  
  
"What games to they have?" He asked her and went to the entertainment centre.  
  
Meredith smiled.  
  
"WHat games don't they have." She loved Asher and Catherine's house for that reason. They lived in the country, had a huge plot of land, and horses even. Meredith looked at her watch.  
  
"Their parents should be home soon." She admitted as she watched William like a little boy turn on some Playstation 3 game. The graphics weren't as amazing as the Playstation 4 games but still, it was worth playing.  
  
"What are we playing?" She asked and grabbed the other controller.  
  
"The original Night of the Living Dead."  
  
"You're a loser William." Meredith pressed start. "And I mean that literally, I play this game every time I come over."  
  
"Yeah well prepare to die." He said.  
  
"Been there, done that." Meredith said and pressed her character start button.  
  
~  
  
"Meredith?" Meredith clued out of TV watching. She looked at the hall to the front door.  
  
"There you are." Heather walked in. Meredith smiled and shook William awake.  
  
"Sorry I invited WIlliam over. That's okay right?" Heather nodded. Meredith stood up.  
  
"They're upstairs and asleep." She saw Norm looking up the stairs. "Hopefully."  
  
"DADDY!" Asher ran down the stairs as fast as his 4 year old legs could carry him. Meredith gave a weak smile as she slid on her shoes.  
  
"They were upstairs and asleep." She said  
  
"Thanks Meredith. Do you need a ride?" Heather asked.  
  
"No, I'll catch one with Will. Oh yeah, William this is Heather and Norm. Heather, Norm this is Dana Scully's son."  
  
"Oh yes, I remember her." Heather admitted. "The red haired woman right?"  
  
"Yes." William replied.  
  
"It was nice to meet you William Are you two..together?"  
  
There was a delay. Meredith looked at William and he looked back.  
  
"No." The said in sinc with one another. Heather smiled at her husband.  
  
"I'll send you a check at the end of the month Meredith." She said. "Drive safetly."  
  
"Always." Meredith said and waved. "Bye!"  
  
"Bye!"  
  
Meredith and William hopped into WIlliam's mom's car. He started it. They began to drive down the road.  
  
"I had you beaten WIll."  
  
"You did not. Besides, you don't play fair. You hide up in that balcony and wait till I walk by."  
  
"That was the first time." She said.  
  
"Oh yeah and that passage way wasn't fair at all."  
  
"William?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"What makes a giant light and is co incidently following us down the road?"  
  
William looked back at the road. A bright light was following them.  
  
"There's two things I can think of." William said, and pushed down on the gas harder. 


	33. A Race Through the Corn Field

Note: The final line of this story I took from he movie Conspiracy Theory. Sorry! Don't sue. Oh yeah and the company Tommy Hilfigure doesn't belong to me either.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 33 - A Race Through the Corn  
  
  
  
William glanced at the approaching helicoptor light. He pushed hared on the gas. The car was slowing down.  
  
"What's happening Will?" Meredith was afraid to ask.  
  
"The gas line's cut! FUCK!" William shouted at the car. Meredith watched him skid to a stop, the light approaching quickly. She grabbed her coat off the seat and opened the door.  
  
Will was off and running into the nearby corn field. She followed, quick on her feet. Thank God I wore runners, she said to herself. Smartass William, going for the corn field. These are Tommy Hilfigures you know.  
  
"Run Meredith!" He shouted to her.  
  
"Oh like I'm going to do anything else you stupid idiot!" She screamed. The light in the sky passed over her. Meredith slowed to a stop. The light follwed her. She dove into the corn. She couldn't see William anymore. As the light left the area she was in she calmed her mind.  
  
It's a game of flashlight tag, she told herself. That's all.  
  
"Mere?" Will nearly stepped on her hand. She stood up, corn in all parts of her hair.  
  
"Well that was fun." She said, combing her fingers through her hair. The light circled, then started heading back.  
  
"The party's just getting started." He said. Meredith followed him through the corn. Every piece her darted through flew back and hit her in the face. He was going in a different pattern. The light was shooting back and forth and so far they had avoided another run in.  
  
"What are they doing?!" Meredith shouted to him. William stopped in a row and looked up. The helicopter was landing and several landing lines shot out.  
  
"Why do I get the strange feeling they're not just here to go corn picking?" He said. Meredith watched in awe. She stood on tip toes and looked over the corn. A tiny barn was in the distance with a house and a light came from several of the windows.  
  
"There!" SHe pointed. The two teenagers took off again, trying not to attract attention from the military men jumping out of the helicopter. They darted here and there, William in the head and Meredith beside him. The mitlitary moved quickly and covered ground faster then they could.  
  
Meredith turned left.  
  
"You protect William." Althought she despised Jason, his words were starting to have and affect on her. She ran away from William, leading hopefully to another part of the field.  
  
"Meredith?!" She didn't listen anymore. She had to save him. She had to make sure he was okay. She ran through the carn, her hair a mess of stalks and her shoes smothered in dirt. She watched the people in the helicopter stand in the corn field for a moment. Her mind was elsewhere. Why us? She questioned. Why us?  
  
William jumped over the picket fence and made it into the yard. He looked back for Meredith when he was tackled to the ground by several men in military uniforms.  
  
"Let her run all she wants." The tall one in a business suit said. "It's this one I want." William was brought to his feet and his arm was twisted back and handcuffed.  
  
A man stepped forward, sunglasses on and suit perfect for a man who had walked through a corn field.  
  
"You're quite the smart one William." He said. "But not smart enough to save your girlfriend."  
  
William clenched his teeth.  
  
"Yes I like you. Take him away." He snapped his fingers once. Meredith! William called through a single thought. Was she captured? Had she been killed for real this time? He didn't want to think about that.  
  
Meredith's long hair flew through the wind. SHe was a good runner and had competed in track and field for a long time. She kept at it, her breath coming out in even strokes.  
  
William was thrown into a helicopter seat, his hands cuffed behind his back. He looked out the window. He saw the lights come on as it lifted itself into the air. He search for blond curls. He searched for Meredith. The seacrh lights traced across the field. Other then what the light revealed he was blind to the other parts of the field. He looked into the helicopter. There were two men in business suits, one who had ordered for WIlliam to be taken away and another whose features were also unseen.  
  
That was when the searchlight spotted her, just outside the corn field, running as fast as anything, her blond curls flying angelically through the air.  
  
"Found her, just outside the field." One man said into the walkee talkee. William stared at her. He couldn't do anything but stare.  
  
"Oh WIlliam I don't see why you watch this sort of thing." The light flickered and died.  
  
"You've never seen her run." He replied. 


	34. A Time to Believe

Chapter 34 - A Time to Believe  
  
  
  
Meredith kept her pace. She didn't look back, knowing that would slow her down. Had they followed her? She didn't know. All she knew was that if they would pay dearly. SHe approached a thick forest. Maybe she could lose them in there. POssible, but she was afraid it was already too late for William.  
  
The spot light left her. Crap, she thought. They've found me. She pushed herself harder then she ever had before. She heard footsteps behind her. Meredith pushed herself on, knowing she had to remain away from whoever was after her.  
  
"STOP!" SHe heard a voice command her. She darted through the forest, leaping over fallen logs. She dodged another tree and threw herself behind a tree. She looked ahead of her, surveying the landscape. A single stream and a brook to her front, a bunch of trees to both her right and left and military men chasing her from behind. She kicked off the tree and headed for the stream and brook, figuring she'd try her luck. She jumped over and narrowly missed falling into the river. SHe threw herself forward, becoming consciously aware of tow men on either side of her. Meredith grabbed a branch and pulled herself up, her chest about to explode from her heart pounding. SHe continued to climb, the tree strong enough to hold every bit of her weight. She looked down. They knew she up there. She knew there was no time to rest. She looked up. The helicopter was right on top of her. There was only one way out of this. SHe looked down. It was a long way. There were no nearby branches.  
  
"Here goes nothing." She said to herself, sayiong a silent prayer as she closed her eyes and took a single step off.  
  
True falling was a sickening and an excitement at the same time but Meredith's crazed concentration somehow slowed the wind. She rose her arms into the air, feeling the rush of air going past her slow and she opened her eyes and looked down.  
  
She was in middair, floating.  
  
Her eyes opened wider. This was strange. Meredith felt the cruel sensation of consciousness fading from a jolt like that. She took a step across the air, now thick as ground. She looked up and took another, landing on another branch.  
  
"Shoot her you fools!" William lunged at the man in the helicopter and he was thrown out the door. William was held back by several other guards. He fought for a moment.  
  
"WATCH OUT MEREDITH!"  
  
Too late. Shots rang out.  
  
Meredith jumped the short distance to the ground. She had flown, for a few moments she had flown and she looked back. There were seven, all of them with guns, all of them forced to do a job. Meredith started off in running again. She thought about it. I can fly, she thought and laughed in her head. I can fly. Let's see anyone at College beat me at that. She jumped off a tree, feeling a little more cocky then usual. What else can I do? She wondered. Maybe I can make myself invisible again? Or how about walking through walls.  
  
She heard a bullet wizz by her ear. She closed her eyes. This can't be real. She told herself, and yet it was. She looked up at the helicopter. The spotlight was on her again, directing the army to where she was. She whipped around another tree and kept running. She closed her eyes.  
  
Time to believe, she told herself. Time to believe.  
  
She kept her mind focused on what she was doing, but there was her subconcious focused on something, anything that could help her.  
  
She opened her eyes. She was still running but no one was pursuing she looked behind her. The small pack of men were looking around blindly for her, as if she wasn't there. Her head started to become light. She ran past them, in the opposite direction. They neither saw nor heard her.  
  
She came to her point of entry and looked behind her, realeasing her mind from its concentration. Weird, she thought. I can turn myself invisible.  
  
SHe turned once more.  
  
Meredith never saw it coming.  
  
SH heard the crack the bullet made as it ripped through her chest. SHe felt the air rushed past her as she was blown back by the force of the bullet. She felt the pain explode in her as she fell against the tree.  
  
Fuck Meredith, fuck Meredith you're dying.  
  
The man emptied his clip into her chest.  
  
WILLIAM! 


	35. Where Reality Ends...

Chapter 35 - Where Reality Ends....  
  
  
  
It was silence. There was nothing but. The echoing of the bullet as it flew through the air and the ripples it made through the waves of time. Meredith felt every bang crack her chest and further damage her already broken body. She coughed up another mouthful of blood. The man in front her began to fade. Meredith closed her eyes finally, but her throat suddenly became full and she could barely breath. She coughed and spluttered, blood falling onto her shirt and smothering with the blood already pasting to her skin. She felt the pains in her chest grow and grow, the constant stinging in them as if her chest were ripping apart. The man began to walk away, leaving Meredith to die.  
  
Meredith saw her life flash before her eyes, the growing pictures of her past playing in a movie form in front of her. She was oblivious to the world around, in fact she felt very peaceful in this void between life and death, hanging onto whatever strands of life she had left and pulling herself back to where she was needed.  
  
She stood there in the void, still and perfect, in the clearing in the woods where she had ran when she was only seven. Her hair was clean and her body was dressed in a long white and blue dress, almost angel like. She turned, her back weighted down. She reached her fingers back and touched the soft and silky feathers. She was an angel. She had died, she had died and gone to heaven. How had that happened? She asked herself and looked around the clearing.  
  
The trees seemed golden and the air seemed light. Meredith closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh scent of the cool breeze, her hair lifted lightly off her back. She looked at the ground. She was levitating slightly and the pools of water at her feet reflected her appreance. She was startled by how she looked, the rose buds in her hair, the winds on her back coming majestically upward and adorned with tiger lillies. The dress rippling in the breeze, the soft fabric trickling through the air.  
  
That was when the sky became dark. The once beautiful golden, shining sky was covered in black clouds. Meredith glared at it. She felt anger dwell through her soul and take her higher off the ground, just below the looming canopy of the trees. She glared with her vivid blue eyes and the clouds started to break, but the whole sky would not yield to her simple tricks.  
  
Meredith placed one hand on her either side of her body. She allowed the wind to collect around both of her palms. The marking by her eyes glowed oddly as she closed them, and the markings spread across her entire body. An odd and eerie glow errupted from her hands and two glowing crystals appeared floating above either palm. Their beauty twirling around in her palms and suddenly they exploded in the glow, the ebb of Meredith's magic so powerful they expand into long ribbons. The ribbons flew up her arms, twisting around her body and covering her in a golden light.  
  
The clouds thundered and raged against Meredith. The forest disappeared, leaving Meredith floating in nothingness. The clouds departed, slowly fading into the golden sky.  
  
Meredith slowly descended and the sky no longer held her in place. She landed on the ground, broken and beaten from the use of the light. She looked at her palms. The marks of the crystals had not disappeared. They remained. She looked at her clothes. They were still her regular clothes, without blood, without gun shot holes. She took a deep breath. SHe realised she could. She looked around.  
  
"If I'm in Jason's house I'm going to kill someone." She said to herself, then looked around. She was in the clearing, in the forest. She looked where she was lying. The pools of water were still there. She looked at her reflection. Her hair was clean and she didn't see any other difference, except the marks on her hands. But then she saw a glowing by the corner of her eye and the mark appeared once more. She touched it, the tattoo a part of her now.  
  
A whispering voice could be heard through the fog around her eyes.  
  
Meredith looked around to where the voice was coming from.  
  
"Stare into the pool Meredith, and I will show you where you came from."  
  
Meredith looked around for a voice. She saw the mist roll in, a figure walking towards her. The misty figure floated over her, the clouds rolling off him and the clear icy eyes stared down at Meredith. She pressed herself against the ground. The clouds thrust themself into her, possessing her, taking her over. A cold chill ran up and down her spine. Her breathing became rapid, then suddenly, she fell into the void of her mind, and she was lost.  
  
And the dream started... 


	36. What's Going to Happen

Chapter 36 - What's Going to Happen  
  
  
  
The world slowed down, and William looked around. The helicopter melted away. He watched as his perception sort of dwindled in this void, then began to melt away and suddenly he was left with nothing.  
  
When he first opened his eyes he didn't know where he was, then slowly he remembered. They were in that clearing, that clearing that Meredith had kept as a secret space for over a decade now. He looked around. Had he been drugged? He didn't know.  
  
"William." He turned around. Meredith stood there, her angelic looks making William want to keep her lasting like this, with her beautiful blond curls endowed with flowers, her body carefully accented by the silver gown. He looked at his own clothing. Silvery robes hung off his body loosely.  
  
"Meredith, what's going on?" His voice echoed like in the dream sequences in the movies. Meredith gave a pretty smile.  
  
"Its a vision Will, its a truthful preminition. This is us, we are angels. We each protect something worth more then life itself."  
  
"What are you talking about Meredith?"  
  
"I am your saviour as you are the saviour of the Earth Will. I am the weapon you are the user."  
  
"Meredith you're not making any sense." She came a step towards him.  
  
"It never will make sense Will. Ever. No matter how hard you apply science or logic there is no science or logic in this situation. We are what we are and there is nothing we can do to stop that. ANd if we could Will, would you really want too?"  
  
Meredith's words had an impact on him. He thought about it. Would he?  
  
"Mere..."  
  
"No Will, there is no excuse. One day they will return and on that day we must fight. We must fight with all our hearts. And at the end of the battle I leave for another world. A world where I can live forever."  
  
"I won't let you die."  
  
"You won't, but you can't stop death if it is meant to be." She gave a weak smile. William looked at her. Was she saying she was already dead?  
  
"You have died haven't you?"  
  
"No, Will. Right now we're alive. We're together. But one day, we won't be together, and you have be brave, for not only you, but both of us."  
  
William looked at the ground. The whole forest started to glow. Meredith gave him a sweet smile.  
  
"I don't want to ever be without you." William said. "I lost you once, and I would die if I lost you again."  
  
Meredith eyes began to water up. She looked at WIlliam. His green eyes looked at her and Meredith suddenly felt something she never had before. She had the hope of thousands with his eyes. She bit her bottom lip and hugged WIlliam close like she had in the Opera house, only this time was different.  
  
"You are and always will be my light in the sky William." She whispered into his ear. "And you make me want to live longer then you."  
  
"Yeah right Blondie."  
  
"Oh so you want to bet now?"  
  
"You bet I do." He said. Meredith smiled and released him a little, then gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek.  
  
"Then its a bet." She said, and let go of him. He smiled at her.  
  
"Please don't tell me that's all you wanted to do."  
  
"Fine, I won't." William smiled.  
  
"Its just, you would call that a kiss?"  
  
It took a single moment, but suddenly Meredith found herself liplocked with the boy she had promised was her brother. And yet she didn't move, didn't disturb the moment, didn't want to. As she and William kissed, the whole forest glowed brightly and suddenly the light engulfed the whole area and they were lost in the light. 


	37. Master of Own Fate

Chapter 37 - Master of Fate  
  
  
  
"William!" Meredith called to the night sky as he disappearred. That was when she realised what she was doing. She looked around. William stood on the ground opposite her and smiled.  
  
"Why you shouting my name Blondie, I've been here the whole time." Meredith gaped and ran to him. This had to be a dream. One minute they were in her secluded clearing, and the next, the beautiful cottage by the lake.  
  
"William..." She said and hugged him. William eyed her oddly.  
  
"Mere, are you okay?" He asked her and patted her on the back of the head. She released him.  
  
"Yeah, I'm just making sure it was you that's all." She said. She looked up. Birght lights scattered across the sky and seemed to fly off.  
  
"Mere, are you sure you're okay." Meredith seemed silent. She remembered everything that had happened to her over the past months that soon had disappearred to nothing. SHe looked around. Yes, she was back.  
  
"Um, well I'm going back up, ya coming?"  
  
"I will in a minute I um gotta do some thinking." William nodded and walked back up to the house. Meredith slumped onto the log. They had given her back her lost time.  
  
"Just can't believe it never happened can you?" She whipped around. Jason stood there, his eyes bearing the moonlight.  
  
"WHo did this?"  
  
"Whay ask a question like that. Some thing happen for a reason. This happned so you and William could have some more time together."  
  
"Will they still come?" She looked up.  
  
"You can't stop them from coming, but you can stop them from killing."  
  
"And in doing so destroy myself?"  
  
"It is destiny Meredith. It is fate. It was what was planned for you the moment you were born."  
  
"That's where your wrong Jason." She said, and stood up, dusting herself off. She didn't give Jason a chance to respond. "I may have been created Jason but I have life, and that life came from somewhere, which means that I'm not destined to die although you had me believing so. I'm destined to be whoever I want to be." She looked once more at Jason. "And no one, neither God, nor human, nor alien nor some Government agency who created me is telling me what to do. I got this chance for a reason. And I think thatit was so William and I could have a chance at what we always wanted."  
  
"Are you willing to take that chance?"  
  
"Life's about taking chances Jason. And with all my experience at that it took me a while to realise that I can choose my destiny. And maybe this second chance is the time to prove it."  
  
Meredith walked away from Jason. He smiled a little.  
  
"You finally learned something Meredith. But you also will realise you're still not human."  
  
As she walked away, she closed her eyes tightly.  
  
And two tears of blood rolled down her cheeks....  
  
  
  
Thank you to everyone who gave me good reviews! I only got one bad one, and I fixed the problem so thank you Karen, who gave me my first review, celestial kitten, who was the second, Cat who helped me fix the only flaw I think in this story, Karen who was really getting into the whole camera thing, SirBalin's Mistress who gave me the most reviews, xfile-scully-2002 who liked my ideas, Horseluva222 who I have to e-mail and tell her I finished, :) who liked my story, Tri who printed it off, redbossfan who identified another flaw (I tell you I'm a better typist now), an anonymous reviewer who liked my ending, Setsuna who had some catching up to do, Latara who liked my character developement, and Sims who should get some literacy skills (kidding!) and the hidden child of the corn who though I should be a therapist.  
  
Thanks to everyone! I want to know if there should be sequel so please tell me what you think! 


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